World Cultural Landscape Heritage: Mount Wutai (10)

Another mark on the Buddhist Holy Land Mount Wutai during Tang Dynasty is that foreign Buddhists highly respected Mount Wutai and emulated worshipped towards it. As the Tang Dynasty had a prosperous economy and a puissant national power, it enjoyed a high international reputation and was the center of economic and cultural exchanges between various Asian countries. Mount Wutai was also respected and admired by Buddhists from many countries such as India, Japan, Korea and Sri Lanka as the expansion of its international exchanges. A large number of foreign monks also made pilgrimage to Mount Wutai to learn and study Buddhism.

Origin of the name Mount Wutai

Most of those who have been to Mount Wutai usually visit the temple complex, which has a long history and large scale, and centers on Taihuai Town in Wutai County. In fact, the real Mount Wutai is five interconnected and beautiful peaks in Wutai County. The five peaks include the Wanghai Peak in the east, Guayue Peak in the west, Jinxiu Peak in the south, Yedou Peak in the north and Cuiyan Peak in the middle. As the altitudes of the five peaks are all above 3,000 meters, few people can reach the tops of the five peaks except some religious Buddhists who are capable of reaching the top to pay their respects to the Bodhisattva Manjusri. At the same time, because the temple complex of Taihuai Town is distributed among the five peaks, people generally regard they have been to Taihuai Town as they have been to Mount Wutai.