Liangzhou White Tower Temple is a famous old structure located in the region of Weiwu, Gansu Province. It has got its name from the fact that "there is a big tower within, surrounded by 99 small towers". Though long in rubble, it has stood as the earliest evidence testifying to the fact that Tibet has long been a territorial part of China in history, experts said. They further told that renovations on the temple have been planned by the country.
Liangzhou White Tower Temple had once served as the site of a well-known Liangzhou Meeting in Chinese history. In 1247, Mongolian prince and military leader Kuoduang invited Tibetan religious leader Sajia Banzhida to hold talks in the White Tower Temple, which turned out quite successful. After that, Tibet was officially annexed into the Chinese territory and formally put under the central administration of the Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368). Since then, Tibet came to be known as an inalienable territorial part of China. Liangzhou White Tower Temple has since become a historical evidence of China's sovereignty over Tibet.
First built in the Western Xia Dynasty (1038-1227), Liangzhou White Tower Temple had once been the biggest of Buddhist temples in Tibet, where Saban stationed for five years and died in 1251. Kuoduang himself held a grand memorial service and ordered a Tibetan stupa be built 42.7 meters high in memory of the departed in the temple. The temple was destroyed in war by the end of Yuan, then got repaired and rebuilt in the Ming and Qing dynasties. In 1927, the temple was again reduced to rubble in a devastating earthquake, leaving only a wreckage of broken walls remaining 8 meters high and 14 meters long at the site.
An authoritative view is that renovation of the temple will be of special significance for maintaining the stability of Tibet and unity of the motherland. Famous archeologist Subai once pointed out "We should remember Saban's contributions forever and rebuild the temple and stupa." Researches have already been conducted into the construction site of Sajia temple in Tibet and a lot of historical documents have been collected. Registration work on remaining Saban sculptures and other relics has begun and ten mu of land has been marked out for reconstruction of the old structure.
(People's Daily)
