Three Profiles at Chongsheng Temple

Northwest of Dali Old Town, three brick pagodas rise against the slope of Cangshan. Their arrangement is immediately legible: the tall square Qianxun Pagoda stands in front, with two smaller octagonal towers behind. The group belongs to the former Chongsheng Temple landscape, but the three structures do not present a single repeated design.

The Dali municipal heritage account dates Qianxun to the ninth century, during the Nanzhao period, and gives it a height of about 69 metres. It describes the tower as a sixteen-storey, hollow brick structure with closely spaced eaves. The smaller pair are about 42 metres high, octagonal and ten storeys; the same account associates them with the Dali Kingdom period. The square and octagonal plans give the group a rhythm that changes as the viewer moves around it.

From a distance, the three towers read as one landmark; the approach, slope and temple grounds set the scale at which they are seen. Their shared setting does not erase the different building histories.

The contrast is not only between one large tower and two small ones. Qianxun’s square plan and the pair’s octagonal plans create different edges against the sky. Closely spaced eaves mark the central tower’s vertical rhythm; the ten tiers of the smaller pagodas repeat that rhythm at a reduced scale. Brick gives the group a continuous material language, while height and geometry keep each building distinct. The composition can be understood without assuming a single construction campaign: the three profiles preserve the visual memory of more than one period of religious building in Dali.