One Hundred and Eight Towers, Qingtongxia.

The 108 pagodas are located on the west bank of the Yellow River Grand Canyon Tourist Area in Qingtongxia City, Wuzhong, Ningxia. They are a group of solid Lama-style pagodas built in the Western Xia period. They are one of the largest and most neatly arranged Lama pagoda groups in China... In 1958, when the Qingtongxia Reservoir was built, the ancient temple ruins and two pagodas under the pagoda forest were demolished because of the consideration that the construction of the dam would flood the riverbed below the pagoda area. The 108 Lama pagodas were prepared to be relocated. However, a silk painting of the Thousand Buddhas with Western Xia scripture and fragments of Buddhist scriptures were discovered in the two demolished pagodas, and the overall relocation plan was abandoned. The brick structure of the 108 Towers is only the outermost layer, and the inside is wrapped with adobe towers, which come in three sizes: 28×15×5, 30×16×4, and 30×14×5 cm. All sizes of adobe towers have a wooden column in the center. When the renovation began in 1987, the adobe tower inside the tower had been completely destroyed. Some of the brick towers were covered with white plaster on the outside, while others had three layers of white plaster exposed inside after the damage. Different layers of white plaster had different patterns painted with cinnabar and other pigments on them. The outermost layer of some of the remaining towers was painted with "lotus petals painted with cinnabar." In 1988, it was announced by the State Council as the third batch of national key cultural relics protection units. Qingtongxia 108 Tower