Trip to China / 037_Wild_Goose_Pagoda
photos by Geoff Reeves
November 1-13, 2000
Just to the South of the beautifully
restored old city walls of Xian is the Great Wild Goose Pagoda
(Dayan Ta). In 629 the monk Xuanzang went on a pilgrimage to India
and returned in 645 with the first Buddhist scriptures to be translated
into Chinese. The temple was built in 652, at the beginning of
the Tang Dynasty, as a place for the translation.
At this temple I bought a silk
painting of Xuanzang making his pilgrimage. It was the only place
I found where bargaining was not even considered.
