The White Horse Pagoda (simplified Chinese: 白马寺; traditional Chinese: 白馬寺; pinyin: Báimǎ Sì, Wade-Giles: Paima szu), in Dunhuang, Gansu, China, was built to commemorate Tianliu, the white horse of the Buddhist monk Kumārajīva, which carried Buddhist scriptures all the way from Kucha to Dunhuang in China c. 384 CE.

Kumārajīva, a revered monk and translator, was born in the oasis city-state of Kucha, the son of a Kuchean princess and a Kashmiri Brahmin.

According to legend, when Kumārajīva reached the ancient city of Shazhou (Dunhuang) he stopped for several days at Puguang Temple to preach the scriptures.

He was devastated by the death of his faithful companion and built this unique nine-storied pagoda containing relics of the Buddha:[4] "Kumārajīva was very sad.

[6] It became "the most widely-read, recited and copied version of the sutra in China, in spite of the fact that later translations were made by several others, including the pilgrim monk Xuanzang."