A World Heritage Site – Wutai Mountain - By: Grace Fan

Wutai Mountain is one of Four Sacred Mountains in Chinese Buddhism, which located at the northeast of Wutai County, Shangxi Province. It is made up of a range of mountains. The Mt Wutai is famous for its five high mountains with flat top. Wutai Mountain is praised as the “roof of north China” for its magnificence. The five mountains extend for 250 kilometers. East Mountain with the height of 2,795 meters is called Wanghai Mountain. Looking from the distance, Wanghai Mountain is like a standing elephant. Climbing the Wanghai Mountain to see the sunrise is a great attraction for the visitors. The south mountain with the height of 3,058 meters is named Jinxiu Mountain. In spring, the mountain is covered with blossomed wild flowers and weeds. The west mountain is 2,773 meters high with the shape-liked a peacock spreading his tails. The moon at the clear night looks like hanging on the top of the mountain so that this mountain is called Hang Moon Mountain. The north mountain, named Yedou Peak, is highest with the height of 3,058 meters. The shady side is covered with ice and snow all year round
Even in summer, it sometimes snows.

Wutai is the home to many important temples and monasteries. There are 53 monasteries which were built in ancient time. Mt Wutai is the only place which can endure the relationship with Tibetan Buddhism so that it is also venerated by ethnic groups. Mt Wutai also bred many element monks. In Tang Dynasty, Mt Wutai became a high Buddhism college. The following paragraphs will give a brief introduction of two famous monasteries.

Xiantong Temple
Located in the center of Huai Town, Xiantong Temple is the oldest and largest temple. It was built in Han Dynasty (25 AD – 220 AD) and enlarged in North Wei Dynasty (386 - 534). It was named Garden Temple for there is a garden nearby. In Tang Dynasty, Empress Wu gave it the name Grand Huayan Temple. It was renovated in Ming Dynasty and got its present name Xiantong Temple. There are seven halls in temple including Kwan-yin Hall, Monju Hall, Great Buddha Hall, Muryangsu Hall, Qianbo Hall, Bronze Hall and Buddhist scriptures Hall. Bronze Hall is the highlight of the temple which was constructed in Ming Dynasty. Bronze Hall contains ten thousands small figures of Buddha. In the center is a big Buddha.

Tayuan Temple
Tayuan Temple, located at the south of Xiantong Temple, once belonged to Xiantong Temple. Broken away from Xiantong temple in Ming Dynasty, Tayuan Temple became independent. The main construction in the temple is white pagoda which became the landmark of Mt Wutai.

About the Author

Grace Fan is an English editor of ChinaTours.com which provides the full range of China tour services such as holiday packages, small group China tours, custom China tours, reservation of flights and hotels an so on. If you want to know more information on China tours, you can visit Chinatouronline.com. If you are from India, you also can visit ChinaTours.co.in.

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