Kashi Molfu Pagoda, Xinjiang China

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Kashi Molfu Pagoda

The Molfu Pagoda lies 30 kilometers away from northeast Kashi City in Xinjiang Province.

It is an ancient Buddhism relic and it looks very particular in the district of multitudinous Islam mosques in Xinjiang with lots of Islamic disciples.

The Molfu Pagoda is between the Talimu Basin and the Pamirs Plateau. The Ta Kalama Desert Gobi is near it. The desert, green continents, and the villages of Weiwuer ("which is one of the Chinese minority nationalities") form the landscape in this place.

This pagoda was built in Tang Dynasty (618 ~ 907A.D.) and has more than 1,000 years' history up to now. Its body is ellipse and its high platform is multi-eaves. The pagoda is more than 12 meters high and there are 3 layers square seats. From bottom up, the layers become smaller and smaller and they are built with concrete.

The huge high platform near the large pagoda is the central construction of this monastery and it is used to enshrine Buddhist statues especially. Now the Buddhist statues in the god cupboard on the wall of the monastery have been lost, and the ornaments inside the monastery and the Buddhist paintings on the wall were also gone long ago.

But from those gods tables and god cupboards existing now, you can still feel that there must be a prosperous period in the Molfu Pagoda. But we cannot know when and why the pagoda was damaged.

Today the Molfu Pagoda is the well-known place of interests in Kashi, Xinjiang. Whoever goes to Kashi will come here. Kashi had the title of "the pearl in the Silk Way" in ancient times and originated from Buddhism of India, then handed into China through Kashi in Tang Dynasty and Chinese culture art imported to all the countries of Middle Asia from here.

The Molfu Pagoda once played quite an important part in cultural exchange of west and east when Buddhism was handed into east. This is the reason why this ancient relic was preserved until now. In historical meaning and the landscape, the Molfu Pagoda possesses double value.