Giant Wild Goose Pagoda

대안탑

The Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, also called the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, is a seven-storey Buddhist pagoda in the Daci'en Temple in the south of Xi'an, Shaanxi, China. It was first built in 652, when the city was the Tang capital Chang'an, under the direction of the monk and translator Xuanzang.

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At a glance

Country: China
Location: Xi'an, China
Built: 652
Height: 64 m
Type: Religious building

Quick answers

Where is Giant Wild Goose Pagoda?

Giant Wild Goose Pagoda is in Xi'an, China.

When was Giant Wild Goose Pagoda built?

Giant Wild Goose Pagoda was built in 652.

How tall is Giant Wild Goose Pagoda?

Giant Wild Goose Pagoda is about 64 m tall.

A seven-storey brick pagoda built in the Tang dynasty to house the sutras the monk Xuanzang brought back from India.

The pagoda was built to store the Buddhist scriptures and images that Xuanzang brought back from India. Today its brick tower stands about 64 metres tall, and since 2014 it has been part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site about the Silk Roads. It is one of the best-known landmarks of Xi'an.

Why was it built?

Xuanzang travelled to India and returned with hundreds of Sanskrit scriptures. To keep them safe, he oversaw the building of a pagoda at the Da Ci'en Temple in 652. It is evidence of how Buddhism and written texts travelled between South, Central and East Asia in the Tang period.

The original tower had five storeys and stood about 60 metres high. It was damaged, then rebuilt as a seven-storey tower under Empress Wu Zetian, and later repaired many times. Its brick outside is the result of major work in the Ming dynasty.

Where does the name come from?

The most widely accepted explanation is a legend about burying a wild goose and building a pagoda. The name Big Wild Goose Pagoda helps tell it apart from the smaller pagoda at Jianfu Temple.

In Tang times, people who passed the imperial exams wrote their names at the pagoda, and the phrase inscription at the Wild Goose Pagoda came to mean success in the exams. Visitors can still see stone tablets by the south entrance.

Fun facts

The pagoda was first built in 652 to hold scriptures Xuanzang brought from India.
Passing the imperial exam was once called inscription at the Wild Goose Pagoda.
The tower was once ten storeys tall, but only seven remain.