Big Wild Goose Pagoda is situated in the Da Ci’En or Great Kindness and Grace Temple which is about four kilometers from Urban center and is one of the most renowned Buddhist pagodas in China. This pagoda was build during the Tang Dynasty for studying the Buddhist Scriptures. It has been attacked by the war, weather and earthquake destroying its most of the original structure, the pagoda still exist on the site.
In 589 AD, during the Sui Dynasty a pagoda was built on the site. It was known as Wu Lou Temple. But, in 648 AD, Li Zhi, a crown prince at that time build the present temple in the memory of his mother which suffered an early death. This temple was since then known as Great kindness and Grace. He paid the homage to his mother by looking towards the temple twice a day from his Hanyan palace when he became the Tang Emperor.
This temple had 13 courtyards and about two thousand magnificent looking rooms and was a place of the grand dimension in the Dynasty of Tang. It gradually decayed after the downfall of this dynasty. The rooms and the halls that exist today are the structures that have been built during the Ming Dynasty. Xuanzang, the Buddhist monk who traveled to India developed theories related to consciousness, translated Sanskrit scriptures, rebirth and karma which were adopted later by the popular schools of Buddhism.
The Big Wild Goose Pagoda was finished completely in the year 652 AD. It is having five storeys and each having 60 meters height. The decay of the pagoda made it necessity to construct a new ten storey pagoda during 701 to 704 AD. Due to the massive earthquake of 1556, it has lead to the construction of only seven storey and about 60 meters tall structure in the later period of Ming Dynasty which stands till date.
This pagoda is an example of marvelous architectural design. It was built using layers of bricks and without any use of cement. The bracket style which is used in the traditional architecture of Chinese is also used for the construction of this pagoda. The body of the pagoda has a solemn appearance having a simple style with high structure depicting the traditional Chinese architecture.