One Hundred and Eight Stupas

The exhibition hall describes the history of the stupas, and shows photographs of what they looked like when they were investigated and renovated during the 1980s.

The 108 stupas are arrayed in a triangular formation up the side of a hill, facing southeast, overlooking the Yellow River.

The first row of nineteen stupas starts slightly up the hillside, so the bottom platform is 5 metres (16 ft) high.

The 108 stupas are believed to have been originally constructed during the period of the Western Xia kingdom (1038–1227), as part of a Buddhist temple complex.

Two Western Xia period silk Buddhist paintings were found inside the two stupas, and fragments of Tangut Buddhist texts, miniature terracota stupa models, and clay tsha-tsha (small tablets made of stamped clay) were also found in the vicinity of the temple.

In 1987 fragments of Buddhist sutras written in the Tangut script were discovered in this platform, together with about a dozen clay stupa models.

The original stupas were made of sun-dried mud bricks surrounding a central wooden supporting pillar.

The mud core was coated in white plaster, with lotus flower designs or Sanskrit text painted in red around the base.