The White Horse Pagoda was located on the outskirts of Dunhuang city. According to legend, in September of 382, Emperor Hujian ordered Taiguang, general of a well-trained cavalry and Jiangfei, general of Lingjiang garrison to head an army of 70,000 men and horses to attack Guizi. In 384, they succeeded in overrunning the country and some 30 others in the western region. Their trophies included 2,000 camels and countless relics and treasures. Then they sent the eminent monk Jiumoluoshi to return to the eastern region to preach scriptures. On reaching Dunhuang, Jiumoluoshi had a dream in which he was told by his mount, the White Horse that it had been assigned by the Buddhist Patriarch to carry him eastward until the thoroughfare and would now leave the mortal land for Hulu River to be other mount. The next day, he awoke to find the death of the White Horse. The local Buddhist followers buried the horse at the foot of the city wall and built a pagoda after its name as commemoration.


The magnificent Pagoda has 9 storeys with a height of 12 meters and a diameter of 7 meters. It was made of adobe with a column inside and coated on the outside with mud and lime. The brick foundation is octagonal with a 3-meter wide face each. The 2-4th storeys were shaped with overlapping refraction angles. The 1-5th storeys were ringed with a line of papilla spikes. The 6th story resembles an upside-down basin, and the 7th, a Buddhist wheel, while the 8th is sexangular with a wind bell hanging from each angle. The top story is a spire resembling a string of beads. The Pagoda on the whole is in the lamaist style of the Ming Dynasty.