Big wild goose pagoda

The Great Wild Goose Pagoda ( Chinese 大雁塔 , Pinyin Dàyàn Tǎ ) is a 64 m high pagoda in the Chinese city of Xi'an . It was built in 652 in the courtyard of the " Monastery of Great Charity ", which Emperor Gaozong had built in memory of his deceased mother.

The Great Wild Goose Pagoda is on the list of monuments of the People's Republic of China and has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site with the title Silk Roads: the Road Network of the Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor since 2014 .

history

The temple complex, which once consisted of more than ten courtyards, was completed in 648 . A little later, the monk Xuanzang moved to an "Office for the Translation of Buddhist Scriptures" set up especially here and, from 650 onwards, devoted himself to translating and commenting on Buddhist texts:

“If he encountered any difficulty, he put the writing aside, then, after praying to the Buddha and completing his religious duties until the third night watch, rose (from his bed again at the fifth night watch), read the Indian text in a loud voice, and with red ink one after the other painted passages that he intended to translate at sunrise. At dawn each day he ate a meager meal and spent four hours reading a new holy book. His students, who came to him for his advice and instruction, filled the galleries and adjoining halls. "

- Grousset and Grießler