Baoguang Temple

The Baoguang Temple  is located in Xindu district 18 km north of Chengdu, Sichuan province, China. It was founded during the Tang Dynasty.

The temples has a number of halls, including the Qing-era Arhat Hall, containing 500 two meter high clay figurines of Arhats. The temple also houses numerous treasures, including white jade Buddha from Burma and a stone tablet engraved with 1000 Buddhist figures.

The temple's pagoda is the only part of the temple that still dates from the Tang dynasty. It is square, has thirteen floors, and is 30 meters tall. The inside of the pagoda is solid, and one can not go inside. The first floor of the pagoda is quite tall compared to the upper floors. The upper floors all feature upturned eaves, with copper bells hanging from them. The top of the pagoda is gold-plated, and each of the four sides of every floor has an image of the Buddha inlaid in gold.

Shortly after the pagoda’s construction in the Tang Dynasty, the pagoda partially collapsed. During the Ming Dynasty, the upper part of the pagoda was rebuilt, but the seventh floor and those above were built tilted slightly towards the west, not according to the pagodas original proportions. As a result, the pagoda has a noticeable tilt.