Thunder Peak, Hangzhou
Posted: December 29th, 2009 | 1 Comment »Visitors to Hangzhou all wander round the lake and can’t really miss the Leifeng Pagoda. However, this pagoda is relatively new (2002) and replaced the previous one, Thunder Peak, which collapsed in 1923. Here’s the Leifeng Pagoda:
And here’s Thunder Peak that was there before but collapsed. Thunder Peak was built in 975AD, five stories of brick and wood. During the Ming Dynasty Japanese pirates attacked Hangzhou and burnt the wood bits which didn’t help the structure much as you can imagine. Then there was a belief among many local people that the bricks from the Thunder Peak could cure illness if ground into a powder and ingested. Over the years so many bricks were purloined for superstitious medicines that eventually the whole thing collapsed. This picture was taken shortly before the pagoda collapsed.
Hi Paul, we should not forget the thousands of small rolled up printed dharani sutras with frontispiece illustration that were hidden in some of the hollow bricks. Quite a lot of them surfaced when the pagoda crumbled in 1924, not 1923, but are a rarity today. Certainly very important early samples of Chinese woodblock printing.
Best regards. Christer