Situated in Da Ci'en Temple, about four kilometers from the urban
center, the Big Wild Goose Pagoda (also called Da Ci'en Temple
Pagoda) is one of the famous Buddhist pagodas in china.Originally built in 589 A.D. in the Sui Dynasty, the temple was named Wulou Temple. In 648 A.D. Emperor Li Zhi , then still a crown prince, sponsored a repair project on the temple in memory of his mother, Empress Wende. It then assumed the present name Da Ci'en Temple (the Temple of Thanksgiving). The emperor was said to pay homage to the temple twice a day (in the morning and at dusk) by looking in its direction form Hanyuan palace. The temple consisted of 1,879 magnificent rooms and was a place of grand extent in the Tang Dynasty. However, it went into gradual decay after the downfall of the Tang Dynasty. The halls and rooms that have survived the ages were actually built in the Ming Dynasty. The Tang Regime gave orders to build a chamber for the translation of Buddhist
scriptures and appointed the Widely renowned Master
xuan zang (Monk Tripitaka ) the head of the temple. The bell tower and the drum tower
Inside the temple where the pagoda is situated, there are two small buildings. The one on the east side houses a bell, and the one on the west side houses a drum. The bell, cast with iron in the Ming Dynasty, weighs 15 tons. Together with the drum, the bell was used to strike time for the monkin the temple.
The great hall of the Buddha
Inside the Greath Hall of the Buddha in the temple, there are three incarnations of Sakyamuni. The one in the middle is called fashen Huddha. The one in the west side is called Baoshen Buddha, and the one on the opposite side is called Yingshen Buddha, Sakyamuni. The founder of Buddhism, was prince of the kingdom of dapila in India. He was born in 565 B.C., and died in 486 B.C. He was an approximated contemporary of
Confucius in china. Sakyamuni left
home in search of monkhood when he was 29 and achieved his purpose
at 35. He then spent the rest of his life traveling in India and
preaching his principles. The figure on the rest side, beside the
three incarnations of the Buddha is Jia Ye, one of the ten great
disciples under Sakyamuni's cousin. He served Sakyamuni for 25
years as one of his 10 great disciples. Along both sides are the 18
arhats, who were also Sakymuni's disciples. Arhats are the highest
ideal position in Hinayana Buddhism. 
