Baita Temple Site 白塔寺遗址

About Baita Temple Site

The site is more than 750 years old and is described by China News Service Gansu as an important Tibetan Buddhist temple in the Hexi Corridor. Its layout centres on a white stupa, with halls, side halls and monks' quarters among the buildings around it; the stupa is about 10 m high with seven storeys, mainly white, and is called 凉州一绝. Around the main stupa there were originally 99 small stupas forming a stupa grove, most of which have been lost. In 1247 Köden, a son of Ögedei of the Mongol khanate, and the Tibetan Buddhist Sakya leader Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltshen held the Liangzhou talks at the temple.

In Yuan times, according to the memorial hall's own guide quoted by China News Service, the temple was large, with a great sutra hall, a Sakya hall, a bell tower, a theatre, a stupa grove and pine woods among its structures. It was destroyed in fighting at the end of the Yuan and rebuilt twice under the Ming and Qing. The 1927 Wuwei earthquake destroyed it again: the stupa grove was lost entirely and only part of the base of the Sakya Pandita reliquary stupa survived.

The site has been rebuilt since. Its reliquary stupa was declared a national key cultural relic protection unit in 2001, and the municipal and district governments have since invested more than 37 million yuan in works including land acquisition, consolidation of the site, rebuilding the main reliquary stupa, building 99 small stupas, and upgrading road, water and power infrastructure. The temple is also known as the Liangzhou Alliance Memorial Hall.

What to look for

• The rebuilt Sakya Pandita reliquary stupa (萨班灵骨塔), about 10 m high with seven storeys and mainly white, which the China News Service feature calls 凉州一绝
• The surviving base of the original reliquary stupa, the only part of the temple to come through the 1927 earthquake
• The 99 small stupas built around the main stupa as a stupa grove
• The site of the Yuan-era great sutra hall, Sakya hall, bell tower and theatre that the memorial hall's guide lists among the temple's structures
• The Liangzhou Alliance Memorial Hall (凉州会盟纪念馆) at the site

Location & getting there

Getting to Baita Temple Site

Check which interiors and courtyards are accessible. Active places of worship and protected monuments may have different visitor rules.

• Search for 白塔寺遗址 with 武威市 and 凉州区.