Xi'an, China: Giant Wild Goose Pagoda

Welcome to another cool site in China! Today we decided to visit the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, and contrary to what you think, there really isn't any giant goose here: bums. This is one of those rare places you see and realize your standing next to something that is 1400 years old! We did this trip with the Walkers, and it was so awesome. 

It was built in 652 during the Tang Dynasty and originally had five stories. The structure was rebuilt in 704 during the reign of Empress Wu Zetian, and its exterior brick facade was renovated during the Ming Dynasty. One of the pagoda's many functions was to hold sutras and figurines of the Buddha that were brought to China from India by the Buddhist translator and traveler Xuanzang. Today, the interior walls of the pagoda feature engraved statues of Buddha by the renowned artist Yan Liben, but  unfortunately we never got to see that. Our tour guide, Celine, told us that the reason it is called the 'Wild Goose' Pagoda is because while Xuanzang was in India and was very hungry, he prayed to Buddha and he saw a big wild goose in the sky, so he followed it and was lead to food.

So your eyes are not throwing you off: the pagoda hangs out with the leaning tower of Pizza and tilts to the west. In 1556 there was a massive earthquake that toppled the top three stories and then made it lean, and after extensive restorations done throughout the century, it has been supported and repaired, and standing at 210 feet tall it remains to this day off kilter: just like Little Monster!

As with all places in China so far, there has be an amazing huge door in which Heather knocks! Open sesame? The tree of life stone artwork was amazing, makes me appreciate such skilled craftsman.

The pagoda itself sits within the Daci'en Temple, which is translated into Mercy and Kindness, and was constructed in 646.

This picture highlights the tilt to the west of the pagoda, the main centerpiece. However, what I didn't appreciate that is the Daci'en temple complex is really just a conglomerate of Buddha shrines that you can go too, pay your money, bow to your Buddha god and flavor, and petition for your needs.  Here you can see the outside entrance to the complex.

So, I wanted to highlight some of the interesting aspects to their religious ceremonies, which here was so very apparent. You start the temple experience with starting with incense stick, like you see here. Then you go and place the incense stick at the location of the type of Buddha you are praying too. 

I particularly loved this part. People would take their incense sticks and light them further from these rainbow colored candles that all represented different prayers. 

Once your done with your incense, you go to different Buddhas, leave your money in the box, deposit your stick of incense and pray. I wanted to show a few of them, but the crazy thing was that the most popular one of them all was the Buddha of money and financial stability. There was a line of people there, but the others only have a few people visit periodically. This showed me what was a common concern among them.

This is the Hall of the God of Wealth, which is symbolized by a whole room of golden buddhas, and a rocking Go-T.

This dude was rocking. The following is just some other ones that I thought were pretty amazing, but it just represented the simple notion that Buddhism is really like the Apple company: there's a God for that, so download the app and your covered. 

So finally when we're done we snapped this picture which demonstrated what our trip was like: a daily occurrence of people taking pictures of our family every where we went! So this shows just the fun of what we went through. 

-Kevin