From Chengdu, walk along Chuanshan Road 16 km, about half an hour's journey, and you will see a tall ancient temple surrounded by red walls, towering pagodas and bamboo forests. This is the well-known Baoguang Temple in Xindu.
Baoguang Temple covers an area of 1.20 mu, with a building area of over 20,000 square meters. The temple is deep and lush, with five halls and sixteen courtyards.
It is one of the "four Buddhist jungles" in southern China, and it is also a famous Buddhist temple in Sichuan since the Qing Dynasty.
According to legend, Baoguang Temple was built in the Eastern Han Dynasty, but there is no history of belief.
The Sui Dynasty was called "Dashi Temple", and the tower in the temple was called "Guanfu Tower".
In 880 AD, Huang Chao's army of the Tang Dynasty attacked Chang 'an.
The following year, Tang Xizong fled to Sichuan, built a palace in the temple, and ordered the Buddhist Wu Da to rebuild the temple. When Tang Xizong saw Baoguang under the pagoda of the temple at night, he changed the name of the temple to "Baoguang Temple".
However, the typical layout of the early Buddhist temples in China, with one temple and one tower in the middle, has still been preserved. It seems that this temple was built in the Sui Dynasty at the latest, and it is still unknown whether it was called Baoguang Temple at that time.
However, according to the latest information 1996 of Tang Dynasty's Stone Tablet for Giving Clothes unearthed in the temple, it was called Baoguang Temple in the 29th year of Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty (74 1).
The stupa in the temple is called Baoguang Pagoda.
Sichuan Xindu is a pearl embedded in Chengdu Plain, which is 8 km away from Chengdu/KLOC-0 and is one of the three capitals of ancient Shu.
Located in Xindu County, Baoguang Temple is a cultural relic protection unit in Sichuan Province and one of the "four Buddhist jungles" in the south. It is recognized as the oldest, largest and richest Buddhist temple in Chengdu, with more than one million tourists and worshippers every year.
Baoguang Temple was built in the Eastern Han Dynasty. After several reconstructions after the war, it finally has today's scale.
According to legend, Tang Xizong fled to Sichuan because of the Huang Chao Uprising. At night, he saw the happiness tower of the temple emitting auspicious light. Later, a stone box containing 13 relics was dug up, so the name of the temple was changed to Baoguang Temple, and the relics were placed under the tower, and the name of the tower was changed to Jingguan stupa, also known as Baoguang Pagoda.
The Baoguang Tower leans slightly to the west and is known as the Leaning Tower of the East.
According to legend, in ancient times, the pagoda was crumbling, and Buddhists risked their lives to protect it, which moved the Emperor of Heaven and sent four gods as tall as the pagoda to support it around.
One of them pushed too hard and the tower tilted to the west.