Qingtongxia 108 Dagobas

The 108 Dagobas sit on a triangular hillside terrace on the west bank of the Yellow River near Qingtongxia, in Wuzhong prefecture, Ningxia, overlooking the river where it flows out of the Qingtongxia Gorge. The complex consists of 108 white-plastered dagobas (stupas) of Tibetan Buddhist design, arranged in twelve horizontal rows that step up the hillside in a triangular formation, with the number of stupas per row decreasing from bottom to top -- one at the apex and increasingly more toward the base -- forming an overall pyramid shape when viewed from the river. The number 108 carries significance in Tibetan Buddhist practice, corresponding to the number of beads on a mala prayer strand and to the 108 earthly desires or afflictions overcome through Buddhist practice. Archaeological and stylistic evidence dates the dagobas to the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368), when Tibetan Buddhism, favored by the Mongol imperial court, spread into the former Western Xia territories that had been absorbed into the Yuan state; some scholars argue an earlier Western Xia origin is possible given the site's proximity to other Xixia-era religious complexes, but Yuan-dynasty construction remains the more widely accepted dating. Each dagoba follows the classic Tibetan stupa form: a stepped square or round base, a bulbous dome, and a tapering spire, though the dagobas here are relatively small and unadorned compared to elaborate Tibetan monastic stupas, giving the site its distinctive uniform, geometric appearance when viewed as a whole from across the river. The site was rediscovered and excavated in the 1980s after decades of partial burial and disrepair, and the dagobas were restored and replastered based on surviving fragments and comparable Yuan-era stupas elsewhere in China. There is no interior exhibit space at the dagobas themselves; the site is presented as an open-air formation best appreciated from a distance across the Yellow River or from the hillside path that winds between the rows, with a small visitor center near the entrance providing background on the site's dating and restoration.