The pagodas are located in Guangde Temple thirteen kilometers west of the county town of Xiangyang in Xiangfan City.
The multiple pagodas on one pedestal, a vajrasana, were built of stone and brick in 1494 in the Ming Dynasty. The whole complex is some seventeen meters high. The octagonal pedestal is huge. Its walls are plain and flat; except for niches for statues of Buddha they have no carvings. There are arched doors on four sides of the pedestal, and a horizontal stone over the front door carries the pagoda's name. In the center of each side is a niche with a white marble statue of a seated Buddha. Around the top of the pedestal are narrow pent roofs. The five pagodas stand on top of the pedestal; the one in the middle, a dagoba in the shape of an inverted bowl, is bigger than the other four, which are multi-eaved, solid, hexagonal pagodas. The pagodas all have their own Sumeru pedestals with elaborate carvings, the white pedestals in sharp contrast to the dark-gray bodies of the pagodas. One of the pagodas bears a small stone tablet that carries the date of the pagoda's construction.
The appearance and structure of the pagodas are unique, and the octagonal pedestal in the style of a vajrasana is rare.
