Yunnan Wanqing Stupa

In the thirteenth century, Yunnan’s first provincial governor, Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar, ordered the construction of a Tibetan-style stupa in Kunming. He named it the Wanqing Stupa, meaning the "celebration of ten thousand people," to mark his six years of administration and foster Han-Tibetan cultural ties. It stood as the white centerpiece of the Wanqing Temple. While the surrounding temple fell to ruin during the Ming Dynasty, the white pagoda endured.

For centuries, travelers on the eastern road experienced a unique ritual. The stupa sat on a square Sumeru pedestal split by a vaulted, north-to-south arched passage. Walking through this "crossing-heart" tunnel allowed busy merchants and locals to pay homage to the Buddha without stopping to pray. This physical passage simplified devotion into a daily stride.

In the autumn of 1911, workers demolished the ancient monument to widen the road. The physical tower vanished, leaving its memory in the name of Baita Road. Its resurrection began with Auguste François, the French honorary consul-general, who photographed the crumbling, moss-covered stupa in 1896. His glass-plate photographs preserved the exact proportions of the white, bottle-shaped body, the upturned lotus seat, the four carved niches with relief-sculpted Buddhist figures, and the simplified conical spire representing celestial tiers.

Using these visual records, the Panlong District Government built a precise 1:1 reconstruction in 2002. Today, the stupa stands at the corner of Baita Road and Shanyi Street, on the western plaza of the Zhenqingguan Taoist temple complex, next to the Yanlong Ancestral Hall. Modern pedestrians still walk through the cool, arched passage, retracing the steps of thirteenth-century travelers beneath the shadow of Kunming's glass high-rises.