The Ayuwang or Ashoka Pagoda is a stupa in

Dai County Dai County, also known by its Chinese name Daixian, is a county in Xinzhou, Shanxi Province, China. Its county seat at Shangguan is also known as Daixian. The county has an area of and had a population of 178,870 at the time of the 2020 ...

in northeast Xinzhou Prefecture in northern Shanxi, China.

Name

The Ayuwang Pagoda's name honors

Ashoka Ashoka (, ; also ''Asoka''; 304 – 232 BCE), popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was the third emperor of the Maurya Empire of Indian subcontinent during to 232 BCE. His empire covered a large part of the Indian subcontinent, s ...

, the Mauryan emperor who converted to Buddhism around 263BC and subsequently greatly patronized the religion.

History

The Ayuwang Pagoda was first built under the Sui dynasty in AD601. Over the next 600 years, it was destroyed and rebuilt three times. Its present form dates to the

Mongol The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member ...

-led

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fift ...

of China, who favored

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

and rebuilt the tower in a Tibetan style. This dagoba was heavily damaged by an earthquake during the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-spea ...

and subsequently repaired.Zhao (2007), 130.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* . {{coord, 39.0803, N, 112.955, E, source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Buddhist temples in Shanxi Pagodas in China Major National Historical and Cultural Sites in Shanxi Yuan dynasty architecture