Pagodas in this category feature complicated ornaments on the upper part, resembling a huge bouquet. Ornaments on different pagodas vary greatly; some are simple and some are complex, but they all have their unique styles. The most common ornaments include huge lotus petals, numerous niches for statues of Buddha, and all kinds of sculptures of Buddha, bodhisattvas, devarajas, celestial figures, plants and animals, such as lions, elephants, dragons, and fish. Some pagodas painted in bright colors look particularly gorgeous.
The creation of such richly decorated pagodas was perhaps affected by two factors. On the one hand, pagoda architecture in China developed from simple to complex and the pagoda's purpose from providing a height for enjoying the view to serving religious ends and standing as a purely ornamental object only. From a religious viewpoint richly decorated pagodas could add to the mysterious atmosphere of the Buddha and make Buddhism more unfathomable to the people. On the other hand, pagoda building in China was also influenced by the architectural trend in India and other Southeast Asian countries, where Buddhist temples and pagodas became more and more elaborately ornamented. As a result, the more practical functions of pagodas, such as for enjoying views and piloting navigation, gradually changed to pagodas' being pure works of art.
Surveys of existing pagodas indicate that early ornamental pagodas were a transition from pavilion-style pagodas with decorations on the upper part and multi-storeyed and multi-eaved pagodas decorated on the main body. The tomb pagoda built for Monk Jietuo of the Tang Dynasty at Foguang Temple on Mount Wutai, Shanxi Province, decorated on the top with overlapping lotus petals, is regarded as pioneer work of this type. The ornaments then were still simple and unadorned. Not until the Song, Liao and Kin dynasties did pagodas with florid ornaments reach maturity. Probably because pagodas of this type were not built in great numbers even then, only some ten such pagodas have been found in the whole country.
Ornamental pagodas remained popular only for some two hundred years during the Song, Liao and Kin dynasties, disappearing in the Yuan Dynasty, but their unique style remains one of the gems in the treasure house of Chinese architecture.
