Temple of the White Dagoba
The Temple of the White Dagoba, standing just over
50 meters (164ft) high, is the largest Dagoba from the Yuan dynasty
(1280-1368AD) still in existence. The temple was completed in under
the supervision of a Nepalese architect and it was considered an
aesthetic masterpiece.
Kublai Khan later established a Lama temple in
front of the Dagoba but it was destroyed, then rebuilt and renamed
as the Miaoying temple during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644AD). The
temple was also used as a factory during the Cultural Revolution
and suffered from an earthquake in 1976, but was restored in the
1980s.
The four existing halls contain Buddhist sculptures
from the Yuan and Ming dynasties and Tibetan tankas. During the
restoration, Buddhist scriptures and other relics dating from emperor
Qianlong’s reign were discovered.
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