Xinhua Insight: Historic pagoda's restoration held in admin limbo
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E-mail Xinhua, June 11, 2013
Experts have spoken out about bureaucratic delays in repairing a historic centuries-old wooden pagoda in the heart of north China's Shanxi Province.
The 958-year-old Yingxian wooden pagoda, built with only brackets and sockets, is believed to be the world's oldest and tallest of its kind, but it is rotting away.
Since November, 2011, the structure has been on a tentative list of sites for which China is targeting applying for UNESCO World Heritage status. Experts believe that stakeholders are wary of material change to the pagoda lest it jeopardize the application. Yet the changes are crucial if the pagoda is to survive in the long term.
DECAYING HERITAGE
The ancient building is of great importance, according to Chai Zejun, chief engineer of the Shanxi provincial cultural relics bureau. "It is exemplary in wood-structured buildings as its two-layered telescope-shaped interior structure supports the 60-meter-tall pagoda without nails," said Chai.
The building is in Shuozhou City's Yingxian County, which is an earthquake-prone region. Documents show that the pagoda stood firm while surrounding buildings collapsed in an earthquake during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).
However, wood in the pagoda has become rotten due to centuries of erosion, preventing visitors from climbing to the second floor of the five-tier tower. The tower now leans slightly northeast.
Chai said the inner structure has been twisted due to some second-floor pillars, which are said to support the upper tiers, having become tilted and displaced horizontally by 47 cm.
The chief engineer is concerned that the pagoda is on the brink of collapse, especially under extreme circumstances of earthquakes or gales.
However, a revamp plan, which was initiated in 1989 by the China cultural relics protection bureau, has been subject to lengthy reviews under professionals or authorities over the past 24 years.
There has been no meaningful action taken, because of financial issues, practical difficulties as well as concerns on how alterations may be read by UNESCO.
DELAYED REACTION
China established a maintenance workteam in Shanxi in 1992.
But nothing progressed until the local government stated in March 2011 that the application for the pagoda should be finished by July 2011 for it to be included on the UNESCO list of protected World Heritage relics by 2013.
Applications for UNESCO World Heritage sites have been filed thick and fast in China in recent years, with a successful bid likely to bring in numerous tourists and considerable revenues for local governments.
In the Yingxian pagoda's case, Shanxi provincial authorities are concerned the revamp will destroy its "originality," one criteria in applying. They say relics vying to be listed should maintain authenticity.
In June 2002, professors and experts hammered out a plan to raise upper parts from the second layer to stablize those tilted pillars, though the plan was shelved after China's national leadership reshuffle, for another decade.
Experts have yawped at the government's procrastination.
Ruan Yisan, of Tongji University, criticized the tardy restoration progress as exposing government inability and ignorance over historical sites.
"The application for World Heritage status should not be taken as a stepping stone for promotion nor fortune," Ruan said, adding that the government should be aware of the pagoda's importance worldwide, whether it is listed or not.
In March 2012, the local government of Yingxian County, completed a rain-proof renovation project to replace rotten tiles and fix cracks to better preserve the building, which has suffered from erosion due to rain and snow leaking through its dilapidated roof.
But such efforts pale when compared with the harsh reality.
"The condition worsens year by year; you can tell by merely watching it," said Ma Yujiang, former director of the pagoda's administration institute.
"There have been little restoration efforts apart from daily monitoring and revamps to the roof," Ma complained. "We don't have the power to make decisions from the grassroots level, and we can do nothing for lack of money and the hierarchy."
As the authorities still consider how to proceed, experts like Chai Zejun continue to lobby for swifter action and monitor the site as best as they can.
Applying for World Heritage status may jumpstart the preservation, according to Chai, "but anything historical should be taken so seriously that no hesitation in restoration is allowable."
This octogenarian, who has led several revamps of cultural relics, has urged instant action in this case as veterans with traditional craft skills are dying out.
"In another decade or two, people will pass away, and those traditional restoration craft and techs will go with them," he warned. Endi
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