Riwuqi Golden Pagoda in Ngamring County, Shigatse

Chinese Name: 日吾其金塔
English Name: Riwuqi Golden Pagoda 
Location: Located in the west of Riwuqi Village, north side of the Yarlung Zangbo River 
Admission Fee: Free
Opening Hours: All Day

About Riwuqi Golden Pagoda in Ngamring County, Shigatse

Riwuqi Golden Pagoda is located in the west of Riwuqi Village, north side of the Yarlung Zangbo River. 4260 m above sea level, Riwuqi Golden Pagoda was built by Tangdongjie Bujiongba(汤东杰布迥巴) who was the founder of Tibetan Opera in 1390. This pagoda is an important part of Riwuqi Monastery.

It has mandala shaped plane with multilateral pattern. Lucky than the most prominen feature of tower is it “tower of temple of unity”, that is the tower of temple. It is a tower creative change, making it more itself from the form of the Tibetan stupa break. Temple and pagoda change into a whole. 

Riwuqi Golden Pagoda is famous for its grand scale, distinctive style and exquisite ancient murals. It has great value on study of the construction and art of Buddhist history in Tibet. It also gives information about the influence of Buddhism culture between Tibet religious and South Asia. In 1996, Riwuqi Golden Pagoda was officially promulgated by government as the third batch of cultural relics protection units in Tibet. 

The Architecture of Riwuqi Golden Pagoda

The pagoda is 35 meters high and has 6 layers. The whole tower is made of adobe bricks. The exterior wall is coated with mud and then painted a layer of white soil; the eaves of each layer of the tower are covered with red and black ribbons. There are bright doors on each side of the floor, 1.2m high and 0.8m wide. In the each corridor, there are lots of well-preserved murals which full of strong religious atmosphere and artistic features. 

The first floor is 5 meters high with five lighting windows and a circled corridor. The peripheral wall is painted by Shakyamuni and thousand small Buddha statue; The second floor is 4 meters high. There are 5 doors and a rectangular darkroom which dedicated a sitting statue of Shakyamuni. The third floor and the forth has many precious murals. The fifth layer is a round drum tower with cylindrical shape. It’s 4.6 meters high with double circular corridor. In the southwest of  corridor wall, it has a small niche. The inside and outside walls are painted with murals. Inside wall is painted by Buddha Shakyamuni Buddha, Dharma, White Tara and so on; the outside is  full of all kinds of Mandala pattern. The sixth floor is 4.4 meters and the last floor is the top of the pagoda. It is a xumizuo type and 13 meters high. On the top, it has nine thousand small Buddha statues with copper skin in the past. From afar, the pagoda is resplendent and magnificent so it named Golden Pagoda. However, there is only one small Buddha statue nowadays, and the rest is destroyed during the Cultural Revolution.    

Attraction Transportation: 

Riwuqi Golden Pagoda is 90 kilometers away from Ngamring County seat. The advanced traffic system provides visitors convenient ways to travel here. Visitors can take long-distance bus or choose self-driving from Ngamring County seat.

Attraction Tips: 
• Traveling Hours: 1 or 2 hours
• Traveling Seasons: All seasons
• High Altitude Sickness Avoiding: Bring enough water or drinks, fruits and snacks with high caloric content
• Bring a good, broad spectrum sunscreen with a high SPF factor and a high SPF lip sunscreen to protect your lips too. 
• Never climb or sit on Buddhist statues or stupas.
• Avoid touching the head of monks or nuns and show respect to a nun or monk or spiritual teacher.
• Remove your shoes and your hat when entering a shrine room or monastery.