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Big wild Goose Pagoda
The pagoda is located in the southern
part of present day Xi'an, in what used to be Chang'an City
in the Tang Dynasty. Actually, the formal name of the pagoda
is Ci'en Temple Pagoda, but since the temple disappeared a
long time ago, the pagoda is known by its other name.
The square, multistoreyed, brick structure
is sixty-four meters high. On a high mound, it seems to
rise into the sky.
Big Wild Goose Pagoda was first built in 652 in the Tang
Dynasty. Xuanzang, a prominent Buddhist scholar of the time,
planned to have a huge stone pagoda built to house the Sanskrit
Buddhist scriptures he had brought back from India, but
the plan fell through because it was difficult to find the
needed stone and the cost was prohibitive. He decided instead
to build a mud pagoda reinforced with bricks, but the mud
pagoda was not strong and the construction was not done
properly. The pagoda collapsed not long after it was built.
It was rebuilt between 701 and 704 on the order of Empress
Wu Ze Tian.
The pagoda tapers sharply from the first storey up, giving
the entire structure the shape of a pyramid and making it
stand very firm. Wooden steps and flooring inside allow
people to go to the top and enjoy the splendid views in
the suburbs of Xi'an. In the past, those who had passed
the imperial examinations to become officials went there
to inscribe their names on the pagoda, the ambition of every
young official. As a result, gathered in front of the pagoda
were tablets inscribed by those who had passed the imperial
examinations in Shaanxi for more than a thousand years,
from the Tang to the Qing Dynasty.
The outer walls of the present pagoda were covered by a
thick layer of bricks in the Ming Dynasty. A tablet on the
lintel of the door on the first storey is vividly carved
with designs of a wooden hall in the Tang Dynasty. Kept
under the pagoda is a stone tablet with an inscription made
by Chu Suiliang, a calligrapher in the Tang Dynasty, which
is an important relic.
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