World Cultural Landscape Heritage: Mount Wutai (9)

Another mark on the formation of the Buddhist Holy Land Mount Wutai is the large-scale construction of Buddhist temples and the increase of monks. There were more than 70 grand scale Buddhist temples in Mount Wutai during the Tang Dynasty.

The number of monks was increasing as the establishment and expansion of Buddhist temples. There were a total of about 10,000 monks and nuns in Mount Wutai during the Zhenyuan period under the reign of Tang Dezong. However, the prosperity and development of Buddhist temples also had a significant negative impact on social politics and economy. Therefore, Tang Wenzong released an order to abrogate Buddhism and demolish temples, and ordered monks and nuns to resume secular life in 854, the fifth year of Huichang under the reign of Tang Wenzong. A total of more than 44,600 various temples were demolished nationwide and more than 260,000 monks and nuns returned to secular life, and tens of millions hectares of land were taken back by the government.

Mount Wutai also did not escape from misfortune. Monks in Mount Wutai would run away and temples on the Mount Wutai were all damaged. However, Buddhism became popular again after Tang Xuanzong took the throne. The government formulated the number of monks in Mount Wutai at 5,000 people. In fact, the actual number of monks including privately tonsured monks and traveling monks was much more than 5,000 people. The number of monks in Mount Wutai during Tang Dynasty was the most in all of history. The great number of temples and monks is also a mark on the formation of the Buddhist Holy Land Mount Wutai.