Mount Wutai’s role in Chinese Buddhism

Mount Wutai is situated in Wutai County, near Shanxi province’s city of Xinzhou, about 230 kilometers from the province’s capital of Taiyuan. It is one of China’s four most famed sacred Buddhist mountains. In 2009, Mount Wutai was selected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Mount Wutai is noted for its time-honored history in construction of temples and evolution of Buddhism.

The history of Buddhisim at Mount Wutai can be dated back to the 11th year of Yongping in the Eastern Han Dynasty (68 A.D.) with the establishment of Dafu Lingjiu Temple (the predecessor of today’s Xiantong Temple), according to Han Jianggen, vice secretary-general of Wutaishan Buddhist Association.

Dafu Lingjiu Temple, presently titled Xiantong Temple, was built during the Eastern Han Dynasty at the same time as the White Horse Temple in Luoyang, Henan province, putting both on China’s list of oldest temples. Mount Wutai has evolved to be a Buddhist center for the country ever since then. It is the largest temple in Wutai Mountain, occupying an area of 80,000 square meters. The Buddhist Association of Mount Wutai is situated here. The bell hanging in the Bell Tower of the Xiantong Temple is the heaviest copper bell on Mount Wutai, weighing nearly 5 tons.

The Xiantong Temple. [Photo/baike.baidu.com]

Twelve more temples were built to surround the Dafu Lingjiu Temple during the reign of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty (386 to 534 A.D.) and Mount Wutai was made a rite enshrining Manjushri or Wenshu Buddha, Bodhisattva of Wisdom, said Cui Zhengsen, a researcher from Shanxi Provincial Academy of Social Sciences and vice president of Mount Wutai Research Society.

Buddhism at Mount Wutai developed to its heyday within the periods of the Sui (581 to 618 A.D.) and Tang (618 to 907 A.D.) dynasties. Cui added that during the Tang Dynasty, there were over 360 temples scattered all over the place and a number of masters representing Han Chinese Buddhism’s different sects preached the dharma there.

Lamaism, Buddhism prevalent in the Tibetan region, was first introduced at Mount Wutai at the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty (1271 to 1368 A.D.), and was followed shortly a string of newly constructed temples.

In the Qing Dynasty, Mount Wutai became the only shrine where both Han Chinese and Lamaism were practiced within the area inhabited by the Han nationality.

Chang Qing, the abbot of the mountain’s best-liked Wuye Temple, was a Han Chinese but followed the doctrine of Lamaism. Lamas of his kind started appearing in the 22nd year of the Qing Dynasty’s Emperor Kangxi (1683 A.D.) when he commanded all monks be transformed into lamas and the number of them at Mount Wutai would reach nearly a hundred.

Crowds of tourists pilgrim to Mount Wutai’s Wuye Temple. Mount Wutai is popular not only for its Buddhist atmosphere and cultural landscape, but also for the Wuye Temple, which, according to the legend, can grant people's wishes. There are thousands coming here to pray for their wishes to come true. [Photo/baike.baidu.com]

Ren Jiyu, prestigious Chinese scholar, once commented, “ Mount Wutai’s culture landscape is a miniature of traditional Chinese culture. Many of the most excellent categories of traditional Chinese culture can be found in Mount Wutai’s Buddhist heritage.”