When he mentioned this, he paused: "You must think that pagodas are pagodas. In fact, these pagodas also serve many wonderful purposes. The pagodas in Han Dynasty often enshrine Buddha statues or Buddha bone relics."
"Such a solid pagoda cannot indeed enshrine anything. Precisely because of its solid structure, there is often an underground palace or underground chamber under the pagoda. When the royal family of Chang'an welcomed the Buddha's bone relics back, they placed them under the pagoda. In the underground palace of Famen Temple, it must be opened every few decades.”
"I guess there must be a niche under this pagoda to enshrine something."
When Taoist Wang introduced the situation, Song Siyuan kept getting closer to the tower. The closer she got, the more noises she could hear that had just entered her ears. She motioned to Yue Guanchao and the others to come closer. After Yue Guanchao listened, his eyes widened: "It seems that this is the place from which It was coming from inside the pagoda, but we were far away at that time and couldn't hear the distance. Now that we are right next to the pagoda, we can hear it very clearly."
"Isn't this pagoda really a spirit?"
The pagoda, which has been abandoned for nearly a thousand years, is constantly making noisy noises. No matter what the reason is, there is always something strange about it.
They then thought about the Tibetan Buddhist culture of Tibet that had influenced this place, and they had no idea what kind of strange thing was hidden in this pagoda. The hairs on their hair stood up unconsciously, and even the hot wind blowing on their bodies had a strange coolness.
In order to strengthen his courage, Xu Xiake picked up his engineering pick and knocked on the pagoda several times. The sound they just heard immediately dissipated, and the irregular buzzing and buzzing roar of copper utensils sounded around them, until the roaring sound continued to decay like ripples in a pond. Only then did the noisy sound become clear again from the pagoda.
Song Siyuan thought about the sound of the pagoda, and her eyes lit up: "These noisy sounds can be disturbed, at least it means that they are indeed coming from the pagoda, but I don't know what the principle is, but just now Taoist Wang reminded us that this kind of solid sound In order to enshrine something in a pagoda tower, niches or underground palaces are often placed under the tower. Perhaps, the secret is hidden in the space beneath the pagoda."
"How about we continue digging?"
Song Siyuan looked at Yue Guanchao. They were already disgraced when they excavated the pagoda tower. She still didn't know how long it would take to excavate the niche.
"I've come here. I've already figured out that the sound came from the pagoda. How can I give up now? Let's do it like this."
Just as they were told, Yue Guanchao and the others picked up their engineering pickaxes and continued digging around the pagoda. When all the loess sealing layer around the base of the pagoda was dug out, the bluestone slabs near the base of the pagoda had already appeared.
Yue Guanchao cleaned up the sand nearby, walked along the vicinity of the pagoda with his feet, and tested the bluestone slabs. When he found a slab with a crisp sound, he used a dagger to cut along the gap. With a bang, the bluestone slab was completely opened.
If you look carefully, you can see that under the bluestone slab, a half-meter-wide entry and exit tunnel is formed underground.
Yue Guanchao looked down with a flashlight. The stairs in the tunnel were steep and downward, extending into the corridor in the distance. It was really a passage that could be walked downwards.
"Let's go, let's see what kind of monster is under this pagoda that can make such strange noises."
Yue Guanchao took the lead and led them down the stairs. When they reached the end of the stairs, an arched doorway appeared in front of everyone.
Walking into the porch, it turns out that this is the niche under the pagoda tower. The area is only larger than that of the tower on the ground. It is estimated to be five or six times the area of the tower base. It seems to be equivalent to the area of an ordinary square house.
In this square niche, the four walls are painted with images of worshiping and offering offerings to Buddhas similar to those in the Thousand Buddha Cave. Each one is rich in color and lifelike. At the same time, there are huge arch holes on the four walls, and four culverts extend from the arch holes, directly They meet at the center of the niche to form a "well"-shaped underground culvert.
Above the culvert, there are iron plates covered with hollow holes. In the middle, stone slabs and wood are used to build a "Mi"-shaped beam-framed shrine. It is like the central niche in the underground niche. It sits securely on the canal and connects it. Raise the top and bottom of the niche.
As everyone walked on the iron plate, they could feel the wind flowing into the room from under the iron plate, making the niche always feel cool and cool.
Song Siyuan carefully observed the surroundings and explained: "This is the center of the ancient city, and it is probably also the underground culvert of the karez. The location under the iron plate is the former culvert waterway. Through here, you can lead to any shaft in the city, but I don't know that this is the case." Why on earth would such a strange shrine appear in this place?”
While they were talking, everyone was approaching the shrine in the center. The shape of this shrine was completely different from the stable and sedan-shaped shrines of later generations. The shape was similar to the character "Mi", with a square with vertical crosses protruding from the walls and beams. .
These protruding wooden components are unified in vermilion, with many thangka paintings on the surface. They are like beams and brackets at the eaves of a palace. They look very gorgeous. At the top of these wooden components, there are eaves-style eaves. At the same time, on these Above the eaves, there is a sculpture in the shape of a soaring eagle.
The styles of these sculptures are very unified, and they are roughly shaped like a soaring eagle with spread wings!
The eagle's head is majestic, its red and phoenix eyes are noble and cold, and its body is in a pitching state about to land. It is firmly caught by two sharp and strong eagle feet, and is directly fixed on the eaves corner of the top of the beam. Its two wings are fully extended, and even The feathers are spread far apart, and the flapping posture is extremely agile.
Their bodies are made of brass everywhere, and their feathers are carefully carved from copper sheets and wires. They are no different from real feathers. If you look carefully, you can even see the fine hairs on the eagle's head protruding from the eyes. The eyes are inlaid with red turquoise and turquoise. After being polished and polished, they appear with a moist luster and are embedded into the eagle's eyes. Under the illumination of a flashlight, it looks like a real flying eagle comes to life, with calm and calm eyes open as it prepares to swoop down.
The only thing that can be considered strange is probably the eagle's beak.
Most of the beaks of these flying eagles are opened angrily, and the tongues in their mouths turn into copper pieces, trembling randomly in the turbulence of the airflow, adding a touch of movement to the flying eagles.
"The flying eagle, the M-shaped frame, and the thangka painting are all Tibetan-style things. I just don't know what they are used for."
Song Siyuan observed the shape of the flying eagle, and then looked at the paintings on the wooden components, and realized that this was not a Han style thing. Based on experience, she speculated that it was probably some architecture from the Tubo period.
After that, she began to observe her surroundings and walked directly in through the archway under the wooden components. Before anyone could get closer, she seemed to have seen something scary and staggered back a few steps.
Yue Guanchao and Keli walked towards her direction!
Inside the arch, a skeleton monk wearing monk's robes was hitting the bronze bell in front of him with a sutra pestle. Every time he struck it, the rotten flesh of his body flew up like snowflakes falling downwards, and the sound rippled outward, noisy. Abnormal, roaring.
The monk's head was stealing a cold gaze in their direction!
…
