Four Towers Built in the Early Qing Dynasty

There are four towers on each side of Shenyang City, and a lama monastery is built next to each tower. The south tower is called "Guangci Temple", the north tower is called "Falun Temple", the east tower is called "Yongguang Temple", and the west tower is called "Yanshou Temple". The four pagodas were built in 1643, and they are all about 5 miles away from the ancient Shengjing. Except for the different names and the Buddha statues enshrined in the Four Pagodas and Four Temples, their architectural scales and shapes are almost the same: the four pagodas have the same style and are composed of three parts: the base, the tower body and the pagoda. The whole tower is more than 26 meters high. Emperor Qianlong wrote plaques for the four temples and hung them on the main halls of the four temples. Yongguang Temple is "Ci Yu Qun Ling", Yanshou Temple is "Golden Millet Auspicious Light", Guangci Temple is "Heart-Hong Kong", and Falun Temple is "Golden Mirror Zhou Garden". The east, south and west pagodas were successively restored in the 1980s, and the west pagoda was demolished in 1968 due to excessive dilapidation. During the demolition of the West Tower, the underground palace was discovered, and a number of precious cultural relics including Buddha statues were unearthed. Among the four pagodas and four temples, only the North Pagoda Falun Temple is well-preserved, the East Pagoda Yongguang Temple and the South Pagoda Guangci Temple only have the White Pagoda, and the West Pagoda Yanshou Temple was rebuilt in 1998.