Big Wild Goose Pagoda (Dayan Ta)

The Big Wild Goose Pagoda rises within the grounds of Da Ci'en Temple in Yanta District, a temple complex founded in 648 CE by the Tang crown prince Li Zhi (later Emperor Gaozong) in honor of his mother. The pagoda itself was constructed in 652 at the request of the monk-scholar Xuanzang, who had just returned from a 17-year overland journey to India and Central Asia, to store the Buddhist sutras, relics, and statues he brought back and to give him a base for translating the texts into Chinese. The original rammed-earth structure deteriorated within decades and was rebuilt in brick around 704 under Empress Wu Zetian, raised to ten stories before later reductions left the current seven-story, roughly 64-meter form standing today. The square-plan pagoda follows the Tang dynasty's Chinese adaptation of the Indian stupa, with brick eaves imitating timber bracket construction and small window openings on each face that offer views over the temple grounds and, from the upper levels, the wider Yanta District. Interior staircases wind through the solid brick core up to each story. The temple complex around the pagoda retains a working monastery function alongside its tourist role, including halls with Buddhist statuary and a bell tower. A large plaza and fountain area was added to the temple's north side in the 2000s, now a gathering point for evening fountain shows unrelated to the historical site itself. The pagoda has undergone several structural stabilizations over the centuries after earthquake damage, most recently reinforcement work to correct a slight lean caused by groundwater extraction in the surrounding city.