Big Wild Goose Pagoda
The Big Goose Pagoda (Dayan Ta), perhaps the most beautiful building left in Xi'an
today, is one of the city's most distinctive and outstanding landmarks. The adjacent
Da Ci'en Temple is the city's best-preserved Buddhist temple complex.
Situated four kilometres (two-and-a-half miles) south of the walled city at the end
of Yanta Lu, or Goose Pagoda Road, the temple and pagoda are on the sites of earlier
Sui temple. Da Ci'en Temple was established in 647 CE by Li Zhi (who became
Emperor Tang Gaozong in 649 CE) in memory of his mother Empress Wende.
Completed in 652 CE, the pagoda was built at the request of the Tang monk, Xuan
Zang, whose pilgrimage to India is immortalized in the 16th-century Chinese novel
Pilgrimage to the West or Monkey. Xuan Zang asked Emperor Gaozong to build a large
stone stupa like those he had seen on his travels. The emperor offered a compromise
brick structure of five storeys, about 53 metres (174 feet) high, which was completed
in 652 CE. Originally called the Scripture Pagoda, it is said to be where Xuan Zang
translated into Chinese the Buddhist scriptures he brought back from India. Its
present name, Big Goose Pagoda, has never been satisfactorily explained.
Between 701 and 704 CE, at the end of the reign of Empress Wu, five more storeys
were added to the pagoda, giving a sharper, more pointed form than it has today.
Later damage, probably by fire, reduced it to the seven storeys it now has. It is a
simple, powerful, harmonious structure, although ironically not how Xuan Zang
wanted it to be.
The pagoda rises 64 metres (210 feet) to the north of the other temple buildings,
and is the only remaining Tang building in the complex. On the pedestal, at the
entrance to the first storey, are some rather faded photographs providing a useful and
fascinating survey of other famous pagodas in China as well as a number of Tang
inscriptions and engravings set in the base of the pagoda. There are some delightful
tendril designs in bas-relief on the borders of the tablets and at the top of the tablets
some exquisite coiling dragons and singing angels.
At the southern entrance of the pagoda are copies of the Emperors Taizong and
Gaozong's prefaces to the translations of Xuan Zang. Over the lintel of the western
entrance is an engraving of Sakyamuni and other Buddhist figures. Some tablets,
inscribed during the Ming (1368-1644), recount the exploits of the Tang monk. On
a fine day, climb up inside the internal wooden staircase to the top of the pagoda for
a panoramic view.
During the Tang, Da Ci'en Temple was a considerable establishment. There were
about 300 resident monks and no fewer than 1,897 rooms around 13 courtyards. It
contained paintings by the leading artists of the day, and had the finest peony garden
in the capital.
Although the temple was one of four to continue functioning after the great
persecution of Buddhism in the middle of the ninth century, it was destroyed at the
end of the Tang (907 CE). Since then it has been ruined and restored several times,
but on a diminished scale. The last major restoration occurred in 1954, when the
pagoda pedestal was widened.
The temple entrance is on the south side. Inside, to the right and left, are the Bell
and Drum Towers, and a path leading to the Great Hall. This contains three statues
of Buddhas, surrounded by 18 clay figures of Sakyamuni Buddha's disciples. Both the
building and the statues inside are said to date from 1466. In front of the Scripture
Library is a stone lamp from the Japanese city of Kyoto. To the east of the Great Hall
are several small stone pagodas marking the remains of monks of the Qing period
(1644-1911). Some new temple buildings are being constructed behind the pagoda.
Built in Tang style around a courtyard, they will serve as a monument to Xuan Zang
and house Buddhist scriptures and details of his life and achievements.
The temple is open from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm. Just around the corner is the Tang
Dynasty Arts Museum.
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