XI'AN: BIG WILD GOOSE PAGODA

The Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, as it is sometimes called, is a sacred Buddhist site and built in the 7th century.   It has been rebuilt through the centuries, and looks to have quite a lean to it.   The Pagoda was built to hold the teachings and sacred items brought back from India by monk Xuanzang.

According to the guide's story he traveled through the Gobi desert to get to India, losing people on the way.  Once he had made the difficult journey he stayed in India and debated Buddhist philosophy with the Buddhist monks he found there.   If he lost the debate, he would be beaten, but since he always won, he earned the respect of the Indian monks and after seventeen years returned with a load Buddhist philosophies and other Buddhist treasures.  In reading a brief summary of his life, it seems that Xuanzang traveled west as far as Afghanistan and south to India looking for the great masters of Buddhism with whom he could resolve the questions he had about Buddhist thought in China. Along the way he studied Sanscript and the texts he found.   His historical importance lay in his influence on Chinese, Korean, and Japanese Buddhism.

When he returned to Chang'an (Xi'an), he spent the rest of his years translating the texts that he brought back with him from India.

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So here is the Big Wild Goose Pagoda.   You might notice that one of us has a decided lean.

The housed the texts that Xuanzang brought back from India, and it is where he spent his last years carefully translating the work into Chinese.

Lucas tells me the Pagoda is empty now and that is is possible to climb to the top (but we didn't have the time [or energy]) to hoof it up the 5 to 7 stories.

.Here is the stairway to the temple. 

 The Buddhas in the temple--sorry, the lean in this case, is mine.

Behind the pagoda there is a building that houses the story of Monk Xuanzang's life in mural form.
There appear to be two kinds of murals.  The three walls of the first room were metal, apparently bronze or brass fused over copper.

 And in a middle room, the story continues, told in wood.

(and apparently a third kind)

 In the last room, the three walls again were metal;
This scene depicts Xuanzang's death and ascension.

Master Xuanzang