They say it leans, but it looks sturdy enough. A 67-metre-tall pagoda in Yingxian County of north China's Shanxi Province has somehow survived the natural and human vicissitudes of history for 950 years.

Yesterday, more than 1,000 pilgrims, including some from Taiwan Province, gathered in Yingxian to join the prayer to mark the pagoda's 950th birthday and to see the relics discovered inside the pagoda's statues.

A clue as to why the Sakyamuni Pagoda stands while so many others have fallen, collapsed or burnt to the ground can be smelt as visitors wind their way up the staircase of the five-floor octagonal building.

There, on the larch wood floor of the oldest and tallest wooden structure of its kind in the world, sits a speckled glop of guano.

"We clean up the bird droppings every year," says 28-year-old Sun Wenying, who grew up nearby and now works at the pagoda, about 400 kilometres to the west of Beijing.

"The birds are the guardians of the pagoda, eating hidden worms to keep the pagoda healthy," says the devout Buddhist.

Every spring, the swallows come. Every fall, they leave, their migratory patterns seemingly matching the pagoda's needs in a historical avian-cultural exchange.

"They come here the day after the Pure Brightness Day in April and leave the day after the Beginning of Autumn Day in August. They're never late, not even by one day," says Sun. "No one knows where so many of them come from and no one knows where they go to. The swallows seem to watch over the pagoda just as the pagoda watches over people,” she says.

"Because of the pagoda, most locals here turn naturally to Buddhism," says Sun. "No serious crimes have ever occurred in the county; we think it is thanks to the protection of the giant Buddha," said Sun, referring to an 11-metre gold-leaf clay statue sitting on the first floor of the pagoda.

"People come to make their wishes to the Buddha, who will help their wishes come true," she adds.

For the 80,000 residents of Yingxian, visiting the pagoda on the Dragon Boat Festival, usually falling in June, is an important annual ritual.

All residents from the county turn up at the pagoda and walk clockwise around the building. "They believe it brings health and prosperity to the whole family," Sun says. "The pagoda is sacred in the hearts of local people."

"Tales about the wonders of the pagoda have been handed down for generations," Sun says. "Most believe the pagoda houses some holy beads as the building has gotten through wartime bombing in the 1920s, gales, earthquakes and flooding.

"Because of the existence of the pagoda, local people are very kind, from the bottom of their hearts, and have deep roots in Buddhism," says Ling Yi, an 81-year-old monk from nearby Lengyan Temple.

"I believe there is some sacred Buddhist object inside the pagoda because it has stood for so long," says Tong Shun, a monk residing at nearby Da'an Temple, about 15 kilometres away.

However, the pagoda's contents have not been escaped completely unscathed. The heads, arms and bellies of statues were defiled during the "cultural revolution" (1966-1976), says Du Fu, former head of the Yingxian County Pagoda Relics Protection Institute.

"People were crazy at that time," says 58-year-old Du, who left his post at the pagoda in 2002. "They destroyed religious things, old things. But they were not crazy enough to destroy the pagoda because locals regard it as an architectural treasure for the county."

Despite the turbulences, the pagoda still stands. Is this due to a sacred presence within it?

In 1974, local people discovered two tooth-shaped relics from two silver boxes hidden in the bellies of two Buddha statues in the pagoda during repairs. Many believers and non-believers hope the relics will be recognized by Buddhist authorities as genuine sarira: sacred relics created by the cremation of Sakyamuni.

Only two pieces of 2,500-year-old tooth relics of the Sakyamuni Buddha are recognized: one in Sri Lanka and another in suburban Beijing. All other declarations of tooth sarira discoveries have not been confirmed or have been proved false.

Hui Li, a senior monk from Taiwan Province, believes they should be authenticated, noting that the two white tooth-shaped relics, about seven centimetres long, have on them some reddish beads. Authenticated tooth sarira have similar reddish beads.

Hou Xinsheng, a local official, asks reporters not to "hype" it up to avoid inducing a religious spat.

Most locals don't know about the alleged "sarira". "We just get glimpses of pictures on TV and we are waiting for the word from senior Buddhist masters," says Sun. "It's rare for us to see the relics during the anniversary."

About 50,000 people have come to worship the so-called relics during the anniversary celebrations, which started at the beginning of the year, says Feng Kecheng, an official in charge of the county's publicity.

Hui Li alone has brought about 1,000 Buddhist followers from Taiwan to Yingxian.

Architecture wonder

There is another convincing reason for the pagoda's longevity: ingenious architecture.

Despite the fact that local annals record the pagoda's construction in 1056, no records show who constructed and why. Local people even choose to believe it was built by Lu Ban, China's legendary master carpenter of the Spring and Autumn period (770 - 476 BC), Sun says.

The ancient craftsmanship dwarfs modern technology: 26 statues appear on different floors to represent different stages of enlightenment, from gold-leaf on the first floor to nine plain sculptures on the fifth floor. Not one nail is to be found in the entire structure.

The work is not just state-of-the-art architecture for the Liao Dynasty (916-1125), says Luo Zhewen, 82 and an expert from the State Administration of Cultural Heritage. It's state-of-the-art architecture for the 21st century, Luo adds.

Today, experts still rack their brains to work out how to fix the pagoda.

Luo leads the repair team, where three schools of thought contend. Some say it's only necessary to support the leaning parts; others say the upper levels above the third floor should be supported and finally there are those who argue that the whole building should be dismantled and built again.

Locals hold their own opinions. "It's not possible for them to fix it and, in fact, it's not necessary," says Sun.

"Even without their help, the pagoda will be fine," says Monk Ling Yi. "The giant Buddha is there to ensure the pagoda's longevity. It's a fact that the pagoda has come through so many disasters."

There is usually an underground shrine below a pagoda. A repair team in 1993 identified a rectangular structure beneath the pagoda. Such an underground treasure trove should contain materials which would help decode the lost history of the ancient building. But worries about digging mar efforts.

"We worry about its safety," says Luo, "and it's hard to say whether it can survive any more earthquakes or gales."

(China Daily September 6, 2006)