The Big Bell is treasured up in the Cultural center of Kengli County with a height of 1.88 meters and a diameter of 1.19 meters. It weights about 1500 kg and the average thickness of the wall is 7 cm. There are two crossed dragons on the top of the bell . The shoulder is decorated with shellfish leaf lines The border of the bell is curled octagon with pictures of Eight Diagrams on it. The bell was obtained in Shikou Commune (now Shikou village) which was verified by archeologists that it was exactly cast in Jin Dynasty betweeng 1132 A.D. and 1156 A.D.. It is about 800 years old. The bell is the combination of Buddha and Taoism, which is rare eveng in Shandong province and is precious cultural relic for it is useful to study the evolution of Shikou in geography, political economy and civilization fields. There maybe two reasons to cast the bell, one is for giving the correct time at the morning and dusk to people, the other is for lauding Buddha. |