White Dagoba Temple (Baita Si)
Located at the Western District inside Beijing City is a Buddhist temple called White Dagoba Temple. It got its name from a white old dagoba inside the temple. In the same year after the dagoba was built, a magnificent temple was constructed with the dagoba as its centerpiece. In 1368 during the Yuan Dynasty, the Temple was destroyed by thunder and fire, only the dagoba remained intact. Most of the buildings you can now see inside the Temple were constructed in the Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1911). The Temple was reconstructed in 1457 during the Ming Dynasty and was repaired in the following dynasties. The Temple originally had the name “Temple of Great Holy Longevity and Eternal Peace”. It was named “Miaoyingsi” after it was rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644). The common people call the Temple by its more popular name, the White Dagoba Temple.
The Temple consists of several halls and yards. In one hall, wooden Sakyamuni, Medicine Buddha and Amitabhas are offered sacrifices to.
The White Dagoba is more famous than the Temple itself. The dagoba has its own history of more than 700 years. It was initially built from 1271 to 1279 during the Yuan Dynasty and was designed and constructed by a famous Nepali at that time. Altogether, this Nepali built three dagobas in the whole of China, one in Tibet, one in Wutai Mountain, in Shanxi Province (one of the four famous Buddhist mountains in China) and the third one here in White Dagoba Temple. These dagobas are the combinations of Chinese and Nepalese cultures. The White Dagoba is fifty one meters high like a gourd. The whole body was covered by chalkiness.Its upper part is like a conic neck divided into three fragments.
Its base is a three-layered square with a height of nine meters. Thirty six copper bells hang to a tray, also made of copper, under the roof of the dagoba. They sound beautifully well when wind blows unto them. This dagoba is on the opposite side of the White Dagoba in Beihai Park and fifteen meters higher. The Temple’s White Dagoba is the biggest in Beijing and is considered the largest Lama Stupa of the Yuan Dynasty (1271 – 1368) in present day China.
There are many precious Buddhist cultural relics hidden inside the roof of the dagoba and are now displayed at the Temple. For example, there are the scriptures written by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, and the little carved Buddhas figures.
The Temple was formally opened in 1980. By now, the reconstruction of the mountain gate of the Temple has already been completed..
