Mount Wutai, ‘the five terrace mountains’, is the highest in Northern China and is remarkable for its five open treeless peaks.
Mount Wutai is one of the four sacred Buddhist mountains in China. Temples have been built on this site since the 1st century AD. There are about 53 monasteries built.
Pusading Temple is where Kang Hsi and Ching Lung prefer to stay when on pilgrimage to Mt Wutai. This temple has Tibetan Buddhist motifs like the Tibetan prayer wheels.
For a thousand years from the Northern Wei period (471-499), nine emperors made 18 pilgrimages to pay tribute to the bodhisattvas, commemorated in stele and inscriptions.
The drive up to Mount Wutai is a grinding uphill slog.
The scenery is snow and snow in March. The weather is minus 6 to minus 3 in the mornings.
It is essential to wear heat trousers and 3 layers of upper clothes, i.e., a heat shirt, jacket, sweater, ending with a down winter jacket with a hood. With these gears, I was not bothered by the cold and windy weather.
The plateau where our hotel is is flat and dotted with numerous hotels.
A useful book is Christoph Baumer’s China’s Holy Mountain Mountain: An Illustrated Journey into the Heart of Buddhism.
Name the 4 sacred Buddhist mountains of China.
Lwh@ Mount Wutai,
Shanxi, 14 March 2025