Big Wild Goose Pagoda is located in the Ci’en Temple (Thanks-giving Temple) which was built in Tang Dynasty. In 652 A.D., in order to store the Buddhist sculptures and scriptures brought back from ancient India by Monk Xuanzang, a pagoda was built inside the temple, hence Big Wild goose Pagoda. Now the provincial government has built a huge public square to the north of the temple, the music water fountain located on the square is now the biggest one in Asia.

History

The Ci’en Temple was built by Gaozong, the third emperor in Tang Dynasty in memory of his mother Empress Wende after her death. And later the temple became a holy place for Buddhist in Tang dynasty. However, the temple itself didn’t get too much reputation until the pagoda was built there functioned to collect Buddhist materials that were taken from India by the hierarch Xuanzang.

There is a famous Chinese fiction named Traveling to the West, recording the adventure that Monk Xuanzang traveling to Ancient India to study Buddhism. In Chinese history, Monk Xuanzang started his great adventure in 629 A.D. and after years of long and hard journey, he finally passed through the vast Gobi and mountains and arrived in Ancient India. Actually when Xuanzang was still young, he shown his special nature gift in Buddhism. As he grew older, he studied almost all the knowledge of Buddhism in China. However, he usually felt confused by the translation of the Buddhist scriptures. Because Buddhism was introduced to China from Ancient India and the scriptures in that time was all translated from Sanskrit. To study the original edition of Buddhism became the source forcing he conquers the difficulties. After study of over 10 years, he finally returned to China in 645 A.D. with 657 volumes of Buddhist scriptures. In order to store those precious Buddhist scriptures, a pagoda was then built under the request of Monk Xuanzang in Ci’en Temple. After the monk returned to China, he became the chief of Ci’en Temple and began to translate the scriptures into Chinese. Because in Tang dynasty Chinese feudal society was in its heyday and Xi’an was the real center of the world, it was possible for Buddhism to be introduced to all over the world. In a sense, Monk Xuanzang played important role in the world Buddhism development and spreading.

Structure of the Pagoda

The Pagoda was built on an almost square base of 25 meters on each side and was about 64 meters tall. Its design was based on ancient Indian wild goose pagoda (stupa) and was therefore called the Wild Goose Pagoda. Because the pagoda was designed by the monk himself, it was, therefore, a combination of Indian design and Chinese architectural techniques. It was built of brick however imitated the traditional Chinese wood construction method. When it was designed, the pagoda was a 5 storied one, and when Wu Zetian took office in Tang dynasty (701A.D. to 704 A.D.) it was rebuilt to be a 7 storied pagoda. Then in the coming dynasties the pagoda was sometimes damaged in war or earthquakes, and in 1604 A.D. the pagoda bear a cosmically repair, and was covered with a layer of brick. Nowadays Big Wild Goose Pagoda almost keeps the outlook after the repair in 1604 A.D. After the establishment of New China, the local government carried out some repairing works and in 1961 the Ci’en Temple and Big Wild Goose Pagoda was listed to be one of the Important Historical Monuments under Special Preservation.

North Square of the Pagoda

Covering about 110,000 square meters (131,563 square yards) plus 20,000 square meters (23,920.6 square yards) of water area, the North Square of Big Wild Goose Pagoda is now the city’s living room and business card of Xi’an. The square also keeps records of being the biggest Tang-culture square in Asia, the biggest musical fountain and waterscape square, and the largest-scale sculptures area. In the world, it has the most benches, the longest light-belt, and the largest-scale acoustic complex.

The entire square is composed of waterscape fountains, a cultural square, gardens and tourist paths. There you can taste real Chinese culture and traditions and fully enjoy the truly attractive views. With reliefs on the theme of the prosperous Tang Dynasty, 200-meter-long (656-foot-long) sculpture groups, 8 groups of sculpted figures, 40 relievos on the land, and 22 styles of musical fountains, it has become a must-see when you visit Big Wild Goose Pagoda.

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