大雁塔 Audio Guide

The statue shows Xuanzang, a monk and translator who brought hundreds of Sanskrit scriptures back from India. Behind him rises the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, a seven-story Buddhist pagoda in the Da Ci'en Temple complex in southern Xi'an. Xuanzang oversaw its construction in 652, when Xi'an was the Tang capital, Chang'an. The pagoda was built to store the scriptures and images he had carried home. In 2014 it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor.

Photo: John Hill · CC BY-SA 4.0

Two stone tablets stand in brick niches on either side of the south door at the base of the pagoda. They carry imperial texts about the scriptures Xuanzang translated. The first is the Preface to the Sacred Teachings of the Great Tang Sanzang, written by Emperor Taizong, whose given name was Li Shimin. He wrote it in 648, in the Zhenguan era. The second tablet carries a companion text by Emperor Gaozong, written for the same preface. Both were inscribed by the calligrapher Chu Suiliang, and the two emperors' words gave the translations imperial backing. The stones are relatively well preserved, with clear lettering. A coiled dragon is carved on top of each one, and trailing grass winds along the sides. On the base, celestial beings dance and play music.

Photo: Zeus1234 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Under a Tang custom, successful candidates in the imperial examinations wrote their names at Da Ci'en Temple. The paved court is wide and open. A bronze incense burner stands on it, its lid topped with a small pavilion roof. The court leads toward a stepped hall, with the pagoda rising above it. From that custom came a saying for success in the imperial examinations: an inscription at the Wild Goose Pagoda.

Jan Bockaert · CC BY-SA 2.0

This is the Avalokiteshvara Hall. A golden figure with many arms fans out at its center. Da Ci'en Temple was a monastic complex, and by the Northern Song dynasty only the pagoda was left of the temple. Golden relief carvings cover the walls around the figure. On the dark red carved table in front of it, flowers and an offering are set out.

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The pagoda began to lean during the Kangxi period of the Qing dynasty. Seen from below, that lean is hard to judge by eye, so the surveyors' measurements tell the story. From 1945 the lean began to speed up, because local groundwater was being overused. Between 1985 and 1996 it grew by about one millimeter a year. By 1996 the measured lean had reached just over one meter. That year the city began sealing private wells, more than four hundred of them in the units around the pagoda. From 1997 the pagoda slowly moved back, and restoration work went on alongside. By the end of 2006 it had shifted nine point four millimeters, in the direction opposite its lean.

Photo: Immanuel Giel · CC BY-SA 3.0

The pagoda was first known as the Ci'en Temple Pagoda. Afterward it was renamed the Wild Goose Pagoda. Later, a smaller pagoda was built at Jianfu Temple, so this one became the Big Wild Goose Pagoda to tell them apart. The most widely accepted explanation of the name is a legend. Monks at a Buddhist temple, hungry and short of food, saw a wild goose dive and die at the feet of one of them. They took it as a sign, buried the goose, and built a stupa over it.

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The outer brick of this pagoda reflects major work carried out during the Ming dynasty. In 1604, during the Wanli reign, a special restoration reinstalled the ladders inside each level. A layer of cladding sixty centimeters thick was also built around the original Tang structure. Horizontal courses run across the brick, and the arched openings are set into it, with a grille across the lower one. At the join of each floor, square pillars, balustrades, arches and dougong bracket sets all imitate wooden construction.

Photo: Zeus1234 · CC BY-SA 3.0

The original pagoda had five stories, an outer layer of brick and an inner core of earth. In the Chang'an years of the Wu Zhou dynasty, weeds growing in the brick seams had already damaged it. Empress Wu Zetian and the nobles donated money to pull it down and rebuild it as a seven-story square pavilion-style pagoda. Later, during the Dali years, it was expanded to ten stories. War destroyed it, and it was rebuilt as seven stories once more. In the Changxing years of the later Tang dynasty, the governor of the Western Capital, An Chongba, oversaw repairs. It was during that work that the pagoda took on its modern form.

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The stairs inside the pagoda have two hundred and forty-eight steps in all. Red painted posts and railings line the wooden stair. A lantern hangs over it, its shade glowing from within. Above, the ceiling is coffered, with a wheel-shaped medallion at its center. Each room along the way is painted with frescoes, mainly showing Xuanzang's journey west to retrieve the scriptures.

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From the summit you look out over the pagoda's surroundings, which the city has protected. In 2013 Xi'an's planning bureau drew a buffer zone around the pagoda. The aim was to keep the pagoda the dominant landmark in its surroundings. Far off, high-rise blocks rise faintly through the haze. The zone is divided into height control areas, with the highest limit set at sixty meters.

Photo: Alan Islas · CC BY-SA 4.0