The First Solitary Pagodas
Since their introduction to China, pagodas have always been built as part of an entire temple building group. In which Indian stupas were designed to be single, the Chinese considered that a pagoda should be only one building with its purposes needy on nearby, more typical structures. The pagoda was the only religious area surrounded by a large group of buildings where monks could live, eat, sleep and worship. However, since changes were made to the architecture of the pagoda itself, the building could now stand alone as a temple.
As well as isolating the pagodas, another change during this time period was to build more than one pagoda together. One temple often had two within. The double pagodas were placed either within a temple-- or under the new pattern-- alone.