◎The Tiangong Temple Tower

The Tiangong Temple Tower is located 100 meters north of Zhaozhuang Village, Fengrun Town, Fengrun District, Tangshan City. It is 1500 meters away to the west of the old seat of Fengrun County and 500 meters away to the south of the Huanxiang River. It was built in the eighth year of Qingning in the Liao Dynasty (1062).

In the first year of Qingning in the Liao Dynasty, the supervisor of salt, Zhang Richeng, built a temple in Nantai. The temple faces south and its first floor is the gate of the mountain. The statues of Marshals Heng and Ha, two ferocious-looking door-guarding gods are in the side room. To the north of the mountain gate are the bell tower on the east side and the drum tower on the west. The north of the bell and drum tower is a two-story hall, in which are the statues of the Buddha's four warriors treading on eight monsters. To the north of the second-story hall are meditation rooms in the style of wing rooms and to the north of the meditation rooms is the main hall of the temple, with a statue of Tathagata in the center. The statue of Heavenly King Li with a pagoda on one palm is on the left of the statue of Tathagata, and the statue of Yang Jian on the right, and the statues of the 18 Buddhist saints stand on both sides. Behind the Tathagata Buddha is a statue of inverted seated Avalokitesvara Buddha.

With 13 floors, the Tiangong Temple tower is 24 meters high. It is a closed and hollow tower with octagonal eaves. The base of the tower is a straight-walled plane octahedron. There are vivid brick-carved dragon pillars on each of the eight edges and corners of the first floor. The upper floors are all overlapping dense eaves and there is a wooden corner beam on each corner, with a large wind bell on each corner beam. The tower spire is an octagonal pavilion roof, on which there is a bowl-covered phase wheel and an orb roof on it. The Tiangong Temple Tower is so high that it can rise above the clouds and block the sun. It is quite magnificent.(https://www.daowen.com)

However, the Tiangong Temple Tower was badly damaged in the Tangshan Earthquake on July 28, 1976, when it was in constant danger of collapsing.

From 1986 to 1989, a large number of precious cultural relics were discovered during large-scale repairs to the Tiangong Temple Tower. The appraisal by the National Cultural Relics Appraisal Committee and the Provincial Cultural Relics Appraisal Team revealed that there are 12 national first-class cultural relics, 25 second-class cultural relics, and 33 third-class cultural relics. Among them, the scriptures of Liao Dynasty are rare cultural relics in China and can be called a treasure of the Chinese nation, which are of great significance to the study of Liao Dynasty's history, religion, paper production, engraving and printing, and the history and culture of Yanjing at that time. In April 2006, the Tiangong Temple Pagoda was listed as a State Protected Historic Site by the State Council. The Tiangong Temple Tower has experienced several rounds of decadence and restoration, and it has finally revived. It has been deeply loved by the people of Fengrun from generation to generation.