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Xiangji Temple lies about 20 kilometers
to the south of Xian. It is very close to the Wangqu town. The two square
brick pagodas were built over the ashes of the Buddhist Shandao, one of
the patriarchs of Pure Land Buddhism preached salvation through faith
rather than meditation. Shandao had a great influence upon the development
of Japanese Buddhism. With the recent strenthening of friendly relations
between China and Japan, our friends in the Japanese Buddhist circle in
May, 1980 gave the Xiangji Temple a gilded wood sculpture of Shandao,
some musical instruments, a stone lantern etc. This pagoda was built by
a disciple named Huaiyun and it is 11-storey high. There is a smaller
five-storey brick dagoba near to the east of the bigger one, which was
built to commemorate Jingye, a disciple of the Buddhist Shandao. Originally,
around the pagoda were the building of one of the great temple-monasteries
of Tang Chang'an, for some reasons, it disappeared long before. It has
brackets in relief and imitates a wooden structure. There are about 25
monks who lived in this temple. You can climb the pagoda with permission.
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