Baoguang Temple 宝光寺

About Baoguang Temple

The solid pagoda is viewed from outside, where the closely spaced roofs and slight lean are visible. Inside the Arhat Hall, clay figures have individual expressions and poses, offering a very different rhythm from the repeated pagoda tiers. Build the visit around those two elements before exploring the other open halls.

The temple was first built during the Tang dynasty, on a site covering 100,000 square meters supported by more than 400 large stone pillars; it burned down during the Ming dynasty and was rebuilt following the reign of the Kangxi Emperor (1654-1722) in the Qing dynasty. Its pagoda, the only part still dating from the Tang, was built between 862 and 888; it partially collapsed soon afterward, and when the upper section was restored during the Ming dynasty, the seventh floor and those above it were built tilted slightly to the west rather than to the original proportions, giving the pagoda its noticeable lean.

The temple holds a Tang-dynasty sarira stupa, a Liang-dynasty jade Buddha and stone sarira pagoda, a bronze tripod from the Shu Han era, a Tang-dynasty pottery pagoda from the Xianqing era, and a Yuan-dynasty copy of the Avatamsaka Sutra written in gold and silver ink, along with sarira relics and palm-leaf sutras. It was listed as one of Sichuan's first Historical and Revolutionary Cultural Relic Protection Units on 16 August 1956, re-listed as a Sichuan cultural relic protection unit on 7 July 1980, and included in the fifth group of Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level on 25 June 2001.

What to look for

• The central stupa has thirteen tiers with upturned eaves and a visible lean.
• The Arhat Hall contains a large gathering of individually modelled clay figures.

Location & getting there

Getting to Baoguang Temple

The temple entrance is on Baoguang Street in central Xindu, at number 81. Arrange the final local connection to this temple frontage rather than a general Xindu destination.