Miaoying Temple

Miaoying Temple in Beijing opens with a local myth: monks waking to find their cracked white dagoba bound overnight by seven iron hoops, fitted by a craftsman who vanished by morning, credited ever after to the legendary builder Lu Ban. The guide moves into the real story of Arniko, a Nepalese craftsman who impressed Kublai Khan and won the commission to build this dome in the twelve seventies, and the temple complex that rose and later burned around it.