Against Mt.Cangshan in the back and facing the Erhai Lake in the front, the Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple in Dali has a history of over 1,800 years and it is regarded as one of the "Three Ancients" of the city. As one of the oldest and most magnificent architectures standing gracefully in South China, it is popular among visitors both from home and abroad.

History of the Three Pagodas
The Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple has a very long history, which was originally built during Nanzhao Kingdom (824-859). There were two reasons to build the pagodas: on one hand the three pagodas were constructed to advocate Buddhism, on the other hand they were built to dominate riddled floods in the area. As Buddhism prevailed greatly and had a big influence at that time, among the 22 kings of the Kingdom of Dali, 9 of them became monks in Chongsheng Temple. This is a peculiar phenomenon in the Buddhist history.

Architecture Features of the Three Pagodas
The Three Pagodas are made of brick and covered with white mud. The middle pagoda is called Qianxun Pagoda. It is a 16-storey pagoda with the height of 69.13 meters, which is one of the highest pagodas of the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907). The other two pagodas stand to the northwest and southwest of Qianxun Pagoda were built about 100 years later. Both of them are 10 storeys and the height of 42.19 meters. Different from the middle Qianxun Pagoda, the other two are solid with the style of octagonal. As the name implies, the Three Pagodas consists of three independent pagodas that form a symmetric triangle.

In the pagodas, at the center of every story there decorated with a shrine Buddha statue. Many sculptures of Buddha are made of gold, silver, wood or crystal. Besides, the Buddhist readings and over 600 various medicinal ingredients were found in the Qianxun Pagoda, which play an important role in explaining the ancient history of Dali City.

Three Pagodas are the representatives of the history and culture of Yunnan province. To reproduce the ancient view of the pagodas and create a unique memory to the visitors, a new Chongsheng Temple was rebuilt in April, 2005. With the essence of all characteristics of past dynasties from Tang Dynasty to Qing Dynasty, Three Pogodas of Chongsheng Temple is the place you should not miss in Dali.