Big Wild Goose Pagoda
As the National Day is approching, I’m busy preparing myself as a voluntary tour guide to the famous historical site– Big Wild Goose Pagoda. It might be a chanllenge for me to carry out the task, ’cause I’m not a local resident in Xi’an myself. But fortunately, I’ve been to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda several times . And it’s really an amusing place that I’d recommand to you to visit.
Located in the southern part of Xi’an city, the pagoda is a component building of the Ci’en Temple, whose constrution started in Sui dynasty. The temple, actually, was firstly named Wulou Temple.
When it comes to Tang Dynasty(648 AD), the prince of the period, Lizhi, added an extension to the temple, in honor of his loving mother. Consequently, he renamed the temple Ci’en Temple, which means”affection” in Chinese, in praise of his mother’s great love for him. The extended architectual complex was composed of 13 compounds, with 1987 rooms in total. He also invited the famous monk, Xuanzang, to take charge of the temple. Xuanzang is famous for his journey to ancient India, fetching thousands of scriptures back to Chia. And he mainly did his tanslation work in this temple. So it was a hot place for pilgrims to visit at that time. The king (the former prince) then organized the constructiong of the pagoda to store the numerous scriptures in 652 AD.
It was quite a disaster that the temple was mainly burnt up in the wars at the end of the Tang dynasy, leaving only the pagoda. And all the other buildings remain today were rebuilt in Ming and Qing dynasity.
There are several stories of how the pagoda was named. One of them is derived from the Biography of Xuangzang Rt. Revd. It’s said that one day a big wild goose was lost from the migratory team. It fell down to the ground after a day’s seek, exaulsted to death. Right in the temple, the monks discovered this wild goose, and they believed that the goose the the Buddha’s metamorphic body. So they decided to build a pagoda for it. So the pagoda was named Goose Pagoda, or Big Wild Goose Pagoda.
Another saying is still more legendary. Before Xuanzang started his journey, he sweared not to have even a step back towark east until he’s got the scriptures. En routeto the holy west, one day, he was running out of water supply in a desert. He was extremely thirsty and was about to drink the last few drops of water in pot. A big wild goose flew over, dying of thirst. It robbed Xuanzang of his pot and drank the water. Sorely angered, Xuanzang follow the wild goose all the way, until he was brought to a clear steam of creek. Being graceful towards the wild goose, he decided to build a pagoda for it after he finished his journey.
Aren’t these interesting? I think both the stories and sightseeings in the Big Wild Goose Pagoda are amazing. It is really a mixture of architectual, historic and Buddist elements. You can check it out. It is worththewhile.
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