Big Wild Goose Pagoda in Xian

Big Wild Goose Pagoda or Giant Wild Goose Pagoda is located in Ci’en temple in the southern province of Xian city. The construction of the Big Wild Goose pagoda brings a spectacular awesome wide view of physical space. It is a square brick-laid construction with the height of 64 meters with seven stories of side length carrying 25 meters and it is also decorated with specially designed spiraling stairs and arch doors for four sides of the stories. It is rated as four star rating for its tourist attraction, it attracts great number of individuals for its name and fame in the religion of Buddhism. The Buddhist materials were stored in this ancient building and worshiped as it is a holy place for the Buddhists.

Tourism

The main tourist attraction for the Ci’en temple is the presence of Big Wild Goose pagoda. It brings the name and fame for the Chinese culture and tradition. The Ci’en temple is the entrance area of the Big Goose Pagoda constructed in the fond memory of moral excellence queen.

Construction – When, Who, and How it was Built

Big Wild Goose pagoda was constructed during the reign of the Tang Dynasty Emperor named Gaozong in the 618-907 period. From that period, the ancient building used to collect and preserve all the Buddhist materials from India by the hierarchy of Xuanzang. Xuanzang was a scholar, traveler, translator and a famous Buddhist monk during The Tang Dynasty. He traveled to India, birthplace of civilization of Buddhism. He stayed for 17 years and traveled across more than 100 countries to obtain Buddha sutras, figures and relics. Later he became the superior of a monastery of Da Ci’en temple by the Tang dynasty in the period 628-683. He ordered the heirarchs to translate all Sanskrit sutras into Chinese language which was totaling around 1,335 volumes. He governed the building of pagoda in preserving the memorable Buddhists civilization history.

Big Wild Goose Pagoda was first constructed with five stories with a height of 60 meters and later it was reconstructed with additional 2 stories with total height of 64.5 meters. It is simply defined as the masterpiece of Buddhist civilization. It was constructed with square brick so it looks like a square cone and the spiraling stairs brings extravagant beauty for the visitors in viewing the Xian city from the seven stories building. The walls of the Big Wild Goose pagoda are well engraved with the statues of Buddha by the world most renowned artist Yan liben.

History

According the ancient belief of Buddhist, there was a story for building the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. In the ancient times, there were two branches, for one of them, eating meat is not a ban and for other it was ban in the society. One day, there was no meat in the town to eat. At that time, a monk saw a big wild geese flying by, he then prayed to Buddha to give some meat to eat and then immediately all the monks were shocked during that moment due to flying goose fell down to the ground with broken wings. This moment made them realize the importance of bodhisattva to be more marked by conspicuous devoutness. In that place where the goose fell, the monks established a big pagoda and named it as Big Wild Goose Pagoda and it is noteworthy to know the traditions and cultures of the Chinese people.