Tibetan and Himalayan Library - THL

The Mongol noblemen and important reincarnations would take it in turns (modeled on the New Year “pilgrimage to the emperor” [chaojin, 朝覲], every six years) to make the pilgrimage to Wutai Shan. For instance, each year twelve of [page 284] the Inner Mongolian Ruling princes and their families went on pilgrimage to Wutai Shan, which means that each of the ruling families of the forty-eight banners of Inner Mongolia would go to Wutai Shan every four years. Mongol nobles and high-ranking monks were sometimes invited to accompany the emperor on his pilgrimage. The First Jebcündamba Qutuγtu made a pilgrimage to the mountain with the Kangxi emperor in 1698.43 In 1811 the Jiaqing emperor took Mongol nobles to pray at Wutai Shan; they visited temples “in the spirit of a unique family of interior (China) and exterior (outside China).”44

Worship and Fairs: The Motivations of the Mongol Pilgrims

Figure 6: White stūpas and tombs on the hillsides with Mongol script. Photo by Gray Tuttle.

The Mongols used to go to Wutai Shan for three main reasons: worship, burial, and trade. Their major motivation, as in any Buddhist pilgrimage, was to accumulate merit and gain a better reincarnation for themselves or for living or dead relatives (by transfer of merit). As the meaning of the Mongolian word for the Buddhist notion of merit (buyan punya), which also means good luck, fortune and prosperity,45 reflects, they were also seeking happiness and prosperity in this life and their future lives. Some Mongols used to go to Wutai Shan often, sometimes as much as once a year, hoping that each new visit would ensure happiness in a new life.46 Some had specific goals such as to ask for an heir, to look for a vision, to do penance, or to cure an illness; but many were just fulfilling their vow to go to the mountain. It was sometimes the most important vow of their life and [page 285] also their most risky and difficult venture ever.47 All this fits well with the standard definition of a pilgrimage, “a journey to a sanctified place, undertaken with the expectation of future spiritual and/or worldly benefit.”48

Figure 7: The horse and mule fair (luoma dahui, 騾馬大會).

In addition to the ordinary pilgrims, many Mongols traveled to Wutai Shan carrying the bones of their deceased parents and ashes of monks in order to be able to bury them in the holy land of Mañjuśrī, so that they could acquire religious merit and have a better reincarnation.49 They carried gold to buy several square chi (尺)50 of land and then erected small funerary stūpa on the plot. So many Mongols asked to be buried there that an edict restricted burials at Wutai Shan to the resident monks.51 But the urns carrying the cremated remains of many reincarnations and abbots from Mongol monasteries continued to be sent there in the early twentieth century to be buried in stūpa.52 For instance several reincarnations of the Caγan Diyanci Qutuγtu from the Caγan Diyanci-yin Keyid in Eastern Inner Mongolia (present-day Fuxin Autonomous District, Liaoning) had their relic stūpa (stūpa śarīra) built in Fenglin Valley (Fenglin Gu, 風林谷) on Wutai Shan. Nowadays many old white stūpa and tombs can still be seen on the hillsides and even near the monasteries.

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A third reason why Mongol pilgrims were attracted to Wutai Shan was trade, which appears to have been – as with many pilgrimages the world over – a very important part of pilgrimages to Wutai Shan, especially for the Mongols who came every year. Wutai Shan became an important Sino-Mongol trade center in the late Qing dynasty. The pilgrims brought with them cattle, camels, mules, horses, hides, leather, wool, gold and silver to give in offerings to the monasteries, but also to sell; the wealthiest came with dozens of animals.53 Of all the Mongol social classes – princes, dukes, nobles (tayiji), monks, and common people – the wealthiest of all were the monks.54 During the sixth month of the Lunar year, an important horse and mule fair (luoma dahui, 騾馬大會 – but also for cattle and donkeys) was organized, attracting traders from Zhili, Shandong, Henan, and southwest Shanxi.55 It was started in the Qianlong period and is still held today.56 The cool climate allowed for the gathering of horses, and the pastures on Wutai Shan were said to be excellent for horses and cattle; the grass and water quickly fattened, strengthened and cured animals.57

Figure 8: The Yanglin Street market. Photo by Gray Tuttle.

The two main trading centers in the late Qing dynasty were Taihuai Zhen (two li south of Xiantong Si [顯通寺, Гayiqamsiγtu tegüs süme], see the Rubin Museum Cifu Si map) where twenty Chinese shops sold flour and other food products, and Yanglin Street (Yanglin Jie, 楊林街), Xiantong Si’s main street. The Yanglin Street market, stretching out from Xiantong Si to either side of the 108 steps [page 287] leading to Pusa Ding,58 had narrow lanes that were densely crowded with thirty or forty Chinese merchant families. These shops belonged to the monasteries and were rented to the Chinese.59 They sold all sorts of Tibetan-style ritual objects – wooden bowls,60 wooden rosaries, metal objects, statues, lacquer dishes, books, bells, amulets, prayer-wheels, vajra, glass, precious stones, seeds, tangkathang ka, banners, charms in one, two, or three languages, oil paintings representing Buddha, Bodhisattva, Dharmapāla, Chinese gods, three-dimensional maṇḑala, but also furniture and cooking utensils for the yurt – everything that a Mongolian family needed could be bought there.61 Other merchants sold silk, antiques and leather objects.62 Two other markets were held at Yingfang Street (Yingfang Jie, 營坊街) and Taiping Street (Taiping Jie, 太平街).63 In the late Qing and the Republican period, the Chinese traders mostly came from Daizhou (Fanzhi District [Fanzhi Xian, 繁峙縣], Wutai District [Wutai Xian, 五臺縣], and Guo District [Guo Xian, 崞縣]), and Xinding.64

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Figure 9: Large appliqué of TsongkhapaTsong kha pa containing a letter in Mongolian sewn inside dated 1805. Newark Museum.

Wutai Shan was certainly an important place for Mongols to buy small statues and tangkathang ka. Some of the tangkathang ka and bronze images that were sold to the pilgrims were apparently made in Wutai Shan’s workshops, located in the shops of Yanglin Street. The pilgrims could also commission a specific tangkathang ka: this was the case of the large appliqué of TsongkhapaTsong kha pa in the Newark Museum, probably commissioned by an Ongniγud Mongolian woman to a Chinese artist at Wutai Shan, and containing a letter in Mongolian sewn inside, dated 1805.65 The pilgrimage to Wutai Shan was therefore an opportunity for major economic exchanges for both Mongolian herders and Chinese merchants.66

The Road to Wutai Shan: Bringing a Nomad Lifestyle to the Mountain

Wutai Shan was far less risky, dangerous and expensive for Mongols than going to Lhasa. However, it was still a difficult adventure.67 The Mongol pilgrims spent at least ten days crossing a part of Shanxi,68 and up to five years away from their homes for those who advanced by doing full prostrations.69 They sometimes went in caravans of thirty to forty pilgrims, walking or riding up to ninety li a day. They [page 289] probably visited the mountain on foot as they still do today.70 Pokotilov noticed in 1889 that they generally traveled with their own yurts and their herds.71 Yet they could not live completely self-sufficiently: they had to buy fodder and fuel, pay taxes, and organize for their cattle (except for the animals destined to be offered or sold) to be looked after at the foot of the mountain.72 Others stopped at inns established every forty-five li and paid for room and board.73 Many Shanxi traders and shopkeepers learned to speak Mongolian and opened shops and inns for the Mongols, with notices written in Mongolian in front of their inns, such as: “The men of this inn are honest and mild, everything is ready and cheap, therefore, O ye Mongols, our brothers, you could not do better than rest here.”74 Some even married Mongols.75

Figure 10: Pilgrim in great prostrations, Wutai Shan. Ono and Hibino, Godaishan, 13.

Figure 11: Pilgrim in great prostrations, 1846 Cifu Si map. Rubin Museum. Photo by Karl Debreczeny.

Therefore, contrary to the idea of pilgrims undergoing a transformative and equalizing experience freed from the structure of ordinary society, wearing special clothing or other markers distinguishing them from ordinary worshipers, respecting particular taboos and carrying out distinctive actions,76 the Mongol pilgrims who traveled with their herds, and especially those who went every year and sold their beasts at the market, just seem to have adopted a particular kind of nomadization little different to their daily life. If pilgrimage was probably not a liminal experience of the religious life releasing the devotees from mundane structure in a spirit of [page 290] “communitas” as described by Victor and Edith Turner,77 this does not mean that the pilgrims did not enter into a deeper level of existence and, at the end of their journey, had not been transformed through the exposure to powerful religious sacra and the practices of circumambulating and prostrating.

The Pilgrimage Season

Western and Chinese travelers and pilgrims described the crowds of Mongol pilgrims, who were particularly noticeable among the other visitors because of the spectacular and sumptuous headdresses and ornaments (especially the Qalqa headdress) the women wore, their colorful garments, and their complete devotion. The Mongol pilgrims came continuously from the fourth to the tenth month,78 thus the year on the mountain was divided between a winter of isolation – a period of religious practice and contemplation for the monks, and a pilgrimage season, with trade and fairs. The population of the mountain doubled in summer, from one to two thousand because of the Mongol, Tibetan, and Chinese pilgrims.79 The sixth lunar month was the busiest period on the mountain: in addition to the above mentioned horse fair, the great Tibetan festival was organized, attended by thousands of Mongol pilgrims. The climax of the festival, which started on the first day of the sixth month, was the Cham’Cham dances with 180 participants in Pusa Ding (fourteenth day of the sixth month, Mañjuśrī’s birthday) and the Monastery of Rāhu(la) (Luohou Si, 羅睺寺, raqu-yin süme; fifteenth day of the sixth month), followed by a grand two-mile-long procession of the image of Mañjuśrī in a palanquin led by dancers and musicians followed by the head ruling lama in a sedan chair and four hundred to five hundred participants. Blofeld’s detailed description matches well with the representation of the procession on the Cifu Si map.80 He talked of imperial processions, with stops at small altars on the way, triple prostrations performed by the various abbots paying their respects to the palanquin and to the head ruling lama. At the end, the head ruling lama made full prostrations in front of the White Pagoda, went through Xiantong Si and returned to Pusa Ding.81

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Figure 12: Dancing monk, Cham’Cham ritual of the sixth month. Ono and Hibino, Godaishan, 16.

Figure 13: Spectators attending the Cham’Cham ritual of the sixth month. Ono and Hibino, Godaishan, 16.

Mongol pilgrims also seem to have been numerous during the fall, when horses were fat and healthy; and they left when snow began to fall, closing off the mountain.82 We can assume that the majority of pilgrims probably stayed in their own yurts, with their sheep and cattle in the pastures of Wutai Shan such as Dailuo Ding and the South Terrace (Nanshan, 南山). Those who did not have their own tent could stay in inns or rented houses at or near Taihuai.83 The Tibeto-Mongol monasteries offered a very limited number of beds, and their hostelries were often reserved for wealthy pilgrims. Some halls of the Tayuan Si, for instance, were reserved for Mongol princes,84 and occasionally welcomed Western travelers.85 For the Tibetan and Mongol monastic pilgrims, two main lodging centers were founded in 1822 and 1831 respectively, Cifu Si86 and Shifang Tang, the branch monastery of Luohou Si (and adjacent to it).87 These were apparently founded because the monasteries could not accommodate the lamabla mas undertaking the pilgrimage in ever greater numbers.

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Figure 14: Procession, festival of the sixth month. Ono and Hibino, Godaishan, 22.

Figure 15: Procession, festival of the sixth month. 1846 Cifu Si map. Rubin Museum. Photo by Karl Debreczeny.

The Circuits of Mongol Pilgrims

Several oral accounts, travelogues and stone inscriptions about donations (as well as modern practices) inform us about the most-visited places, considered most sacred by Mongol pilgrims. These objects of worship are of three kinds: the monasteries and the holy relics of monks and Buddha they enshrine, the living reincarnations, and the sacred natural features of the mountain.

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Figure 16: Mongol pilgrims worshipping a statue of Mañjuśrī in a monastery, Wutai Shan. Ono and Hibino, Godaishan, 24.

Figure 17: Praying gestures and prostrations in front of the ‘Taranatha stūpa.’ 1846 Cifu Si map. Rubin Museum. Photo by Karl Debreczeny.

The steles tell us about the most visible objects of worship: the monasteries. The inscriptions are mostly concentrated in Shifang Tang (182 inscriptions), Tayuan Si (sixty-one), and Luohou Si (forty-seven), but also record donations to the other Tibeto-Mongol monasteries (Pusa Ding, Luohou Si, Yuanzhao Si [圓照寺, Küntu Khyappé Lhakhangkun tu khyab pa’i lha khang, tegüs geyigülügci süme], Cifu Si, Zhenhai Si, Avalokiteśvara Cave [Guanyin Dong, 觀音洞 qomsim bodisadua-yin aγui], and so on), and to Chinese monasteries (Shuxiang Si, Xiantong Si, Dailuo Ding, Cave of the Mother of Buddhas [Fomu Dong, 佛母洞 eke-yin aγui], and so on).88 The Mongol pilgrims donated livestock and products made from livestock, but also gave gold and silver, and the altars were covered with Mongol women’s jewelry.89 Some participated in person in building temples at Wutai Shan to gain merit;90 others financed the rebuilding of ruined temples, such as Pushou Si, an old Jin dynasty monastery rebuilt in the Guangxu period by a lamabla ma from Outer Mongolia, Yonden (Yundeng, 雲登, nineteenth century).91

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Figure 18: Mongolian stele, Shifang Tang. Photo by Isabelle Charleux.

Figure 19: Mongolian stele written in Tibetan and Mongolian, Luohou Si. Photo by Isabelle Charleux.

Figure 20: The White Pagoda of Tayuan Si. Postcard (n. d.).

The first and most important destination of Mongol pilgrims was the fifty-meter-high White Pagoda of Tayuan Si, built in 1301 by the Nepalese artist Arniko (Anige) to enshrine Aśoka’s (ca 332-304 BCE) original stūpa that sheltered one of the eighty-four thousand relics of the Buddha, the holiest of Wutai Shan’s relics.92 The White stūpa was enlarged during the fifteenth century and restored many times. Among the nine major restorations of the pagoda recorded during the Qing dynasty, five were carried out by Mongols. In 1703 a Mongol abbot of the Qaracin called Chahan Deliji (察漢得力吉, eighteenth century) financed some restoration. In 1869 while visiting Wutai Shan, Prince Namjilvangcuγ (Namujiliwangqingge, 納木吉力王慶哥), ruler of the Sünid Left Banner, made a vow to restore the pagoda, gave two thousand taels for its restoration and then asked all the princes (beyile), nobles, and commoners to contribute.93 In 1887, the corji da lama (Quji da lama, 曲記大喇嘛) Lobsang DondrubΓalsangdondub of the ecclesiastical estate (šabi) of the Qalqa Jaya bandida [page 295] from Mongolia came on pilgrimage, stayed at Tayuan Si and saw miraculous lights with five colors playing around the pagoda at night; he gave five hundred taels of white silver, four camels, and one yurt to restore the main hall and to add thirty prayer-wheels.94 In 1895 a Qalqa donor named Longdanjamsu donated 1,800 taels.95 In 1905, a donor from Urga named “Qilengbutimuji” (乞楞補踢木濟, twentieth century) gave one thousand taels of white silver to restore the pagoda.96

Figure 21: Mongol pilgrims turning prayer wheels and circumambulating the White Pagoda. Ono and Hibino, Godaishan, 13.

Figure 22: Pilgrims and tourists turning prayer wheels and circumambulating the White Pagoda, July 2007. Photo by Isabelle Charleux.

The crowds of Mongol pilgrims making numerous circumambulations and prostrations, turning the 108 prayer wheels, touching the Buddha’s feet with their forehead and giving offerings to the stūpa are described by all the travelers.97 It was the “central place of worship where even the most illiterate pilgrims to this mountain may consummate their pilgrimage.”98 The Chinese lay Buddhist Jiang Weiqiao, famous for having popularized meditation practices, describes the great piety of Mongol pilgrims who prostrate without interruption on wooden planks, their hands protected by rags.99

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Figure 23: AmdoA mdo monk-pilgrims in prostrations in front of the White Pagoda of Tayuan Si, July 2007. Photo by Isabelle Charleux.

Figure 24: Modern pilgrims worshipping towards the White Pagoda, July 2007. Photo by Isabelle Charleux.

The pilgrims visited the central complex of monasteries located near the great pagoda – Xiantong Si, Yuanzhao Si, Guangzong Si, and Pusa Ding. A major site of devotion for Mongol pilgrims was the blooming lotus revealing the Buddha (kaihua xianfo, 開花現佛) at Luohou Si,100 which was said to attract pilgrims like a magnet.101 On each of the eight petals of the great wooden lotus a Buddha is engraved that appears as the lotus blooms, activated by a hidden mechanism.102 The Mongols called Luohou Si the “monastery of the revolving lotus.”103 Back home, they said they saw the Buddha appear at Wutai Shan. The pilgrims therefore thought the lotus especially opened for them, though the monks revealed the mechanism to learned visitors such as Gao Henian.104 Luohou Si was restored in 1658 by the First Caqar Diyanci (d. 1671) of Kökeqota who had received thirty thousand taels of white silver from the Shunzhi emperor.105 Yuanzhao Si106 with the stele of the begging Mañjuśrī (Wenshu taofan), also received numerous Mongol donations.

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Figure 25: The “blooming lotus revealing the Buddhas” of Luohou Si. Postcard (n. d.).

Figure 26: The statue of Mañjuśrī at Shuxiang Si. Postcard (n. d.).

Up the hill, the pilgrims crawled on their knees up the 108 steps of Pusa Ding, and visited the monastery which, after the decrease of Manchu patronage in the mid-nineteenth century, was heavily dependent on Mongols’ donations.107 The Shuxiang Si108 statue of Mañjuśrī was particularly worshipped by pilgrims from Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, and Tibet.109

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Figure 27: The stūpa of Rölpé DorjéRol pa’i rdo rje in Zhenhai Si. Photo by Isabelle Charleux.

Figure 28: Pilgrim cloth map stamped by a resident lamabla ma with the seal of Zhenhai Si, July 2007. Photo by Isabelle Charleux.

Figure 29: Stūpa on the top of the Northern Terrace. Photo by Isabelle Charleux.

The most important monastery outside of the central complex for Mongols to visit was the holy stūpa of Rölpé DorjéRol pa’i rdo rje enshrined in a courtyard of Zhenhai Si,110 the main monastery of the Zhangjia Qutuγtu, surrounded by woods. Before the Cultural Revolution, the stūpa of two other reincarnations of the Zhangjia could be seen in a courtyard above the monastery. The Mongolian pilgrims also came to pay their respects to a stūpa allegedly enshrining the hat and robe of Pakpa Lama’Phags pa bla ma (1235-1280) at Puen Si (also called Xitian Si), north of Taihuai. Many of the Mongol pilgrims did the great pilgrimage (dachao, 大朝), visiting the monasteries of the five terraces, weather permitting,111 the classic spots and holy monasteries recorded in the gazetteers, the “ten remarkable things to see”;112 the ancient Chinese monasteries – Qingliang Si, Zhulin Si, Jin’ge Si, Mimo Cliff (Mimo Yan, 秘魔岩), and so on. In addition to all the sacred places on the mountain, pilgrims also came especially [page 299] to visit a high reincarnation, such as Rölpé DorjéRol pa’i rdo rje, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, or the Ninth Panchen Lama. The Commandant d’Ollone describes many Mongol princes accompanied by their numerous retinues visiting the Thirteenth Dalai Lama in 1908.113

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[36] See Kurtis R. Schaeffer, “Tibetan Poetry on Wutai Shan,” Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 6 (December 2011), http://www.thlib.org?tid=T5719.

[37] However, in 1900, A. W. S. Wingate, “Nine Years’ Survey and Exploration in Northern and Central China (Continued),” The Geographical Journal 29, no. 3 (March 1907): 276, noticed a “large falling off in the number of Mongol pilgrims” and consequently “a heavy shortage in the amount of contributions,” and gave as explanation the scarcity of water along the routes.

[38] Elverskog, “Wutai Shan, Qing Cosmopolitanism, and the Mongols”; Zhongguo Menggu wen gu ji zong mu bian wei hui, ed., Zhongguo Menggu wen, 2141-47, n°12610-12647, and 2178-211, n°12786-996, and personal observation.

[39] The Mongols of China include the Mongols of the Eight Manchu banners as well as the Mongols living in China since the Ming dynasty. I have no information on Monguor and Manchu pilgrims.

[40] Since seventy percent of the stone inscriptions are located in Shifang Tang (see below), this could mean that the Sünid Mongols stayed in Shifang Tang and used to carve a stone to record their donations, while other Mongol groups did not.

[41] Also called Guangren Si (廣仁寺, Nupchok Kündü Lingnub phyogs kun ’dus gling, örüsiyel-i badaraγuluγci süme), founded by a monk from the ChonéCo ne Monastery in AmdoA mdo, and staffed by Tibetan lamabla mas.

[42] Antoine Mostaert (cicm), “Matériaux ethnographiques relatifs aux Mongols Ordos,” Central Asiatic Journal 2 (1956), 289.

[43] Charles Bawden, ed., The Jebtsundamba Khutukhtus of Urga (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1961, Asiatische Forschungen, 9), 56, 58.

[44] As recorded in the stele “Qingliang Shan beiji,” in Wutai Shan bei wen, edited by Zhou, et al., 81. On imperial tours to Wutai Shan in general, see Köhle, “Why Did the Kangxi Emperor,” and on the Jiaqing emperor’s tour to Wutai Shan, see Patricia Berger, “The Jiaqing Emperor’s Magnificent Record of the Western Tour,” Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 6 (December 2011), http://www.thlib.org?tid=T5711.

[45] For a discussion of “orthodox” benefits (notions of karma and accumulation of merit) and less “orthodox” ones (such as good luck, purification of sins, transgressions and pollution, life energy, longevity) in Tibetan pilgrimages, see Toni Huber, The Cult of Pure Crystal Mountain: Popular Pilgrimage and Visionary Landscape in Southeast Tibet (New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 10, 16-19.

[46] Gilmour, Among the Mongols, 143.

[47] Song, “Mengzu renmin,” 34.

[48] Alex McKay, “Introduction,” in Pilgrimage in Tibet, ed. Alex McKay (Richmond [Surrey] & Leiden: Curzon Press, International Institute for Asian Studies, 1998), 1; a similar definition is given by Susan Naquin and Yü Chün-fang, “Introduction,” in Pilgrims and Sacred Sites in China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), 3.

[49] According to the Lazarist fathers Huc and Gabet, who did not actually visit Wutai Shan: “The most celebrated seat of Mongol burials is in the province of Chan-Si [Shanxi], at the famous Lamasery of Five Towers (Ou-Tay) [Wu-t’ai]. According to the Tartars, the Lamasery of the Five Towers is the best place you can be buried in. The ground in it is so holy, that those who are so fortunate as to be interred there are certain of a happy transmigration thence. The marvellous sanctity of this place is attributed to the presence of Buddha, who for some centuries past has taken up his abode there in the interior of the mountain. In 1842 the noble Tokoura, of whom we have already had occasion to speak, conveying the bones of his father and mother to the Five Towers, had the infinite happiness to behold there the venerable Buddha. […] it is certain that the Tartars and the Thibetians have given themselves to an inconceivable degree of fanaticism in reference to the Lamasery of the Five Towers. You frequently meet, in the deserts of Tartary, Mongols carrying on their shoulders the bones of their parents to the Five Towers, to purchase almost at its weight in gold, a few feet of earth, whereon they may raise a small mausoleum” (Régis Evariste Huc [1813-1860], Travels in Tartary, Thibet and China, 1844-1846 [trans. by William Hazlitt; ed. with an introduction by Professor Paul Pelliot, London: Routledge, 2 vols., 1928 (repr.; first ed. 1924)], 93-94).

[50] 1 chi = 0.32 meters.

[51] Guangxu, ed., Qinding Lifanyuan zeli, compiled in 1811, 64 juan (1890): 16, s. l., juan 59.

[52] Song, “Mengzu renmin,” 34.

[53] Bai Meichu, Zhonghua Minguo shengqu quanzhi (Beijing: Beiping Shifan Daxue shi di xi, 1925, vol. 3: “Lu Yu Jin sansheng zhi”), 154.

[54] Zhang, “Wutai Shan can fo,” 25.

[55] Bai, Zhonghua minguo, 92.

[56] It was organized at the foot of Dailuo Ding near Taihuai, but was moved to the pastures facing Zhenhai Si during the twentieth century.

[57] Han Heping, and Wang Miao, Wutai Shan (Hong Kong: Xianggang Zhongguo lü you chu ban she), 1999, 98-99.

[58] The Pusa Ding, “Bodhisattva’s Ushnisha Monastery” or “Bodhisattva’s Peak Monastery” (Bodisadua-yin Orgil), was built during the Yongle (永乐, r. 1403-1424) reign on the old Da Wenshu Si or Zhenrong Yuan that sheltered the “true image” of Mañjuśrī. It was the residence of the head ruling lama and thus the GelukpaDge lugs pa principal monastery, sponsored by the Manchu emperors.

[59] Bai, Zhonghua minguo, 92; Xin and Zheng, “Wutai Shan simiao jingji,” 30.

[60] The production of wooden bowls made from outgrowths of willow roots, particularly prized by Mongols and Tibetans, has continued up to the present day; they were reputed to be unbreakable, stay cold when containing hot food and during the summer, and were used to store meat and oil because they had preserving qualities (Han, and Wang, Wutai Shan, 96).

[61] Bai, Zhonghua minguo, 92; Blofeld, The Wheel of Life, 123; Edkins, Religion in China, 237-38; Rockhill, “A Pilgrimage,” 767; Pokotilov, “Der Wu T’ai Schan.”

[62] Bai, Zhonghua minguo, 92.

[63] Jiang, Wutai Shan jiyou, 22.

[64] Yan Tianling, “Menggu ren ‘chao tai’ yu Meng Han gou jian,” Wutai Shan yanjiu (2004, no. 1): 42-43.

[65] Valrae Reynolds, “A Sino-Mongolian-Tibetan Buddhist Appliqué in the Newark Museum,” Orientations 21, no. 4 (April 1990): 32-38.

[66] Yan (“Menggu ren ‘chao tai’”) – quoting Zhang, “Wutai Shan can fo,” and Bai, Zhonghua minguo, 92 – showed that Wutai Shan became an important center of interaction between the Mongols and the Han. The lamabla mas learned to speak Chinese, and the Shanxi traders learned to speak Mongolian.

[67] As do most of the Christian missionaries, James Gilmour (Among the Mongols, 149) takes the Mongols’ defense: “There is no more severe test of the earnestness of the religious devotion of the Mongols than their being willing thus to journey for days through the country of unsympathetic Chinamen, whose language they do not understand, and who lie in wait for their money, ready to fleece them at every turn…”

[68] The pilgrimage road from Mongolia crosses the northern part of Shanxi: Longsheng Zhuang (Fengzhen District [Fengzhen Xian, 豐鎮]), Datong, Ying District (Ying Xian, 應縣), Fanzhi District, Taihuai.

[69] Blofeld, The Wheel of Life, 114-55; Yan, “Menggu ren ‘chao tai’,” 42. Even the Torgut Mongols “perform journeys occupying a whole year, and attended with immense difficulty, to visit for this purpose [burying the bones of their deceased parents] the province of Chen-Si” (Huc, Travels in Tartary, 94).

[70] In modern Mongol pilgrimages and temple fairs, dismounting one’s horse at a certain distance from the monastery is very important and is seen as particularly praiseworthy for Mongols who hate walking for long distances, and who wear boots unsuitable for walking.

[71] Pokotilov, “Der Wu T’ai Schan und seine Klöster.”

[72] Gilmour, Among the Mongols, 149.

[73] Blofeld, The Wheel of Life, 122.

[74] Gilmour, Among the Mongols, 149.

[75] Gilmour, Among the Mongols, 149; Yan, “Menggu ren ‘chao tai.’”

[76] Victor Turner, and Edith Turner, Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture: Anthropological Perspectives (New York: Columbia University Press, 1978), 7-9.

[77] Turner and Turner, Image and Pilgrimage, 7. For a discussion of Turner and Turner’s arguments: Simon Coleman, and John Eade, eds., “Introduction,” in Reframing Pilgrimage: Cultures in Motion (London, New York: Routledge, 2004).

[78] Wutai xin zhi, juan 3, 9b.

[79] Lao Li, “Dao Wutai Shan qu baifo,” Bao lin 1 (2004): 99, figures for the early twentieth century. In July 2007, two thousand monks came for the sixth month festival from AmdoA mdo, Tibet, and Inner Mongolia.

[80] Blofeld, The Wheel of Life, 131-44.

[81] Wei Guozuo, Wutai Shan daoyou (Beijing: Zhongguo lü you chu ban she, 1993 [1988]), 77-78; Zhao Peicheng, “Shitan Wutai Shan Zang chuan fo jiao yu jin gang shen wu,” Xinzhou Shifan Xueyuan xuebao 20, no. 4 (August 2004): 38-40. For a description by a Chinese eye witness in 1905, see Gao, Ming Shan youfang, 65.

[82] Zhang, “Wutai Shan can fo,” 24.

[83] Nowadays, the monks and pilgrims who come for at least a month rent a room in the “Tibetan suburb” north of the village. In 2007 a five-bed room in a courtyard could be rented for three hundred yuan per month.

[84] Fischer, The Sacred Wu Tai Shan.

[85] Christopher Irving, “Wu-Ta’i-Shan and the Dalai Lama,” New China Review (May 1919), 157.

[86] Jamgé Lingbyams dge gling, built by the head ruling lama of Pusa Ding.

[87] Cai Hong, “Shifang Tang,” Wutai Shan yanjiu (1999, no. 1): 23-25.

[88] Henry Payne, “Lamaism on Wutai shan,” Chinese Recorder 60, no. 8 (1929): 508, relates in 1929 that a Mongol prince visited Wutai Shan every year and brought large sums of money for the upkeep of the monasteries, and that the three large temples under construction were all being built using funds from votive offerings from Mongolia and Manchuria. Mongol princes also restored temples at Nārayāna Cave (Naluoyan Ku, 那羅延窟), Lingying Si, Falei Si at the Western Terrace, and Puji Si at the Southern Terrace (Gao, Ming Shan youfang, 115-7, 120).

[89] Blofeld, The Wheel of Life, 128-129.

[90] Blofeld, The Wheel of Life, 126.

[91] Wei, Wutai Shan daoyou, 167.

[92] Anning Jing, “The Portraits of Khubilai Khan and Chabi by Anige (1245-1306), a Nepali Artist at the Yuan Court,” Artibus Asiae 54, nos. 1-2 (1994), 55.

[93] “Chongxiu Tayuan Si sheli baota beiwen,” in Bei Xin, “Tayuan Si beiwen,” Wutai Shan yanjiu (1996, no. 4): 39-40.

[94] “Namo Amituofo”, in Bei, “Tayuan Si beiwen,” 40.

[95] “Yongyuan liufang”, in Bei, “Tayuan Si beiwen,” 40.

[96] “Chongxiu baota beiji”, in Bei, “Tayuan Si beiwen,” 42.

[97] See the description of pilgrims rich and poor alike circumambulating the giant stūpa, reciting prayers, telling their beads, turning prayer-wheels, and prostrating on a plank in the direction of the stūpa: Blofeld, The Wheel of Life, 128-29; Payne, “Lamaism on Wutai shan,” 509; Gao, Ming shan youfang, 109-10 (who traveled in 1912).

[98] Blofeld, The Wheel of Life, 130.

[99] Jiang, Wutai Shan jiyou, 21.

[100] “Monastery of Rāhu(la)” (Śākyamuni’s son), an old Tang monastery rebuilt under the Ming, and staffed by Chinese lamabla mas in the Qing dynasty.

[101] Wei, Wutai Shan daoyou, 61-64.

[102] The lotus already existed in the seventeenth century. There was a similar lotus at Yansui Ge in the Yonghe Gong of Beijing (now lost).

[103] Delege, Nei Menggu lamajiao shi (Kökeqota: Nei Menggu ren min chu ban she, 1998), 350.

[104] Gao, Ming Shan youfang, 119.

[105] Delege, Nei Menggu lamajiao shi, 350.

[106] Previously called Puning Si (普寧寺), rebuilt and renamed Yuanzhao Si (圓照寺, Küntu Khyappé Lhakhangkun tu khyab pa’i lha khang, tegüs geyigülügci süme) in the Ming dynasty to house a twenty-three meters high white stūpa erected in 1434 to contain the ashes of an Indian monk who visited Beijing under the Yongle emperor and received the title of Imperial Preceptor.

[107] Fischer, The Sacred Wu Tai Shan, 10.

[108] An old Chan monastery located south of Dabai Cun founded under the Tang dynasty and rebuilt several times under the Yuan, Ming, and Qing. It sheltered the highest and most revered statue of Mañjuśrī at Wutai Shan, said to imitate (or was sometimes mistaken for) the original statue of the Zhenrong Yuan.

[109] Lao, “Dao Wutai Shan,” 100. Song, “Mengzu renmin,” 34, records that old lamabla mas of the Qaracin Banner in Inner Mongolia remember some of the highlights of Wutai Shan: they stayed in the Shifang Tang, climbed to Pusa Ding, admired the stele of the begging Mañjuśrī at Yuanzhao Si, and saw the portrait of Mañjuśrī with the “head made of buckwheat” at Shuxiang Si. There are several stories in the Chinese folklore about a statue’s head (said to have been) made of a cereal. About the Shuxiang Si statue: the sculptor who made the statue of Mañjuśrī could not make the head because nobody had seen the true face of Mañjuśrī. The abbot and then all the monks were fighting with him because they wanted the statue to be completed. Then a cook said it was useless to fight about that because Mañjuśrī’s face could be done as one likes. Mañjuśrī then appeared (in the kitchen); the sculptor had no time to find his tools and quickly made the head with buckwheat according to what he was seeing. This is just a more detailed story of the Mañjuśrī statue located in the Zhenrong Yuan, the temple of the “True face.” But at that time this statue had disappeared. The Shuxiang Si statue was the most important statue of Wutai Shan; it was believed to be a “true portrait” comparable to the Sandalwood statue of Beijing. It was this statue and this temple that Qianlong chose to copy for his Beijing and Chengde temples.

[110] Located at Yangbaiyu Village (Yangbaiyu Cun, 楊柏峪村), south of Taihuai, it was the main monastery of the ZhangjiaQutuγtu. The Zhenhai Si received exceptional imperial favors.

[111] In the Dailuo Ding monastery the pilgrims could worship copies of the Mañjuśrī statues of the five peaks. It was called the small pilgrimage to the terraces (xiao chaotai, 小朝臺), and was an alternative to actually going to the peaks.

[112] See the list in Wei, Wutai Shan daoyou, 188.

[113] Commandant d’Ollone, Les Derniers barbares. Chine, Tibet, Mongolie (Paris: Pierre Lafitte & Co., 1911), 362.

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Note Citation for Page

Isabelle Charleux, “Mongol Pilgrimages to Wutai Shan in the Late Qing Dynasty,” Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 6 (December 2011): , http://www.thlib.org?tid=T5712 (accessed ).

Note Citation for Whole Article

Isabelle Charleux, “Mongol Pilgrimages to Wutai Shan in the Late Qing Dynasty,” Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 6 (December 2011): 275-326, http://www.thlib.org?tid=T5712 (accessed ).

Bibliography Citation

Charleux, Isabelle. “Mongol Pilgrimages to Wutai Shan in the Late Qing Dynasty.” Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 6 (December 2011): 275-326. http://www.thlib.org?tid=T5712 (accessed ).

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Popular Wutai Shan
3. Promoting the Mountain
4. The Mongolian Pilgrimages to Wutai Shan
5. The Natural Numinous Features of the Wutai Shan Pilgrimage
6. Conclusion
7. Glossary
8. Bibliography
9. Notes
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