Pagoda Daqin

Pagoda Church Daqin

The Daqin Pagoda ( Chinese 大秦 塔 - “Roman Tower”) in the Zhouzhi County ( 周至 县 ) of Shaanxi Province of China near Xi'an is the oldest Christian church in the Far East . It was erected by Christian Nestorians (representatives of the Assyrian church ) in about 640 . It was originally part of the monastery .

In the VIII century, it received the name " Datsin " - as the ancient Chinese called the Roman Empire and Byzantium . During the persecution of Christians in China (c. 845), the temple came to desolation. In the XIV century, the building was chosen by Buddhist monks who left it after the earthquake of 1556, which blocked the underground passages and caused great damage to the building. In 1998, the Chinese government recognized the pagoda as one of the few surviving monuments of Nestorian Christianity in China and took it under protection, assigning it the status of a national property of China.

On the walls of the monument to this day you can see the images of the Nativity of Christ and Jonah under the walls of Nineveh . Separate inscriptions in Syriac are also preserved. Currently, the safety of the pagoda is threatened not so much by an earthquake, but by periodic floods. In 1999, cosmetic restoration was carried out; in the course of new works it is supposed to clear the underground halls buried in the 16th century .

A copy of the so-called " Nestorian stele ", erected in 781 by representatives of the same Assyrian church, is installed on the pagoda. The original stele is in the museum " Forest of steles ." Three kilometers east of the pagoda is the famous Lauguantai temple complex.