MOUNT WUTAI SHAN (GYANAK RIWO TSE NGA ) Birth place of Manjushree

Mount Wutai Shan; Birth place of Manjushree

Mount Wutai Shan (Chi. 五台山) or Qingliang (Chi. 清涼山) is identified as the worldly abode of the bodhisattva of Wisdom, Manjushri, located in Shanxi Province, China. It is one of the four great sacred Buddhist Mountains of China. Each of the mountains is viewed as the bodhimaṇḍa (道場; meaning the "position of awakening.") of one of the four great bodhisattvas.

Manjushree (Jamphel Yang)

Wutai is the home of the Bodhisattva of wisdom, Manjushri or Wénshū (文殊) in Chinese. Manjushri has been associated with Mount Wutai since ancient times. Due to its unusually cold weather and also on the basis of a passage in the Avataṃsaka Sutra, which describes the abodes of many bodhisattvas, the mountain became known as mount Qingliang, Clear and Cool Mountain. In this chapter, Manjushri is said to reside on a "clear cold mountain" in the northeast.

The bodhisattva is believed to frequently appear on the mountain, taking the form of ordinary pilgrims, monks, or most often unusual five-colored clouds. Its five grass covered flat peaks are arranged in a crescent-shaped configuration and are located above the tree-line around 3,000 m. Accordingly, the mountain obtained its name Wutai Shan, the Five-Terrace Mountain.

Tibetans and Mongols referred to it as Gyanak (tib. China) Riwo Tse Nga, the Five-Peaked Mountain of China. The mountain peaks appear from the far distance like heavenly altars and are conventionally referred to by their cardinal directions. Together the peaks are believed to constitute Manjushri’s mandala with a different emanation of Manjushri residing on each peak.

Simdha Getul Rinpoche @ Mount Wutai Shan

At the age of 20 years old, I could go to pilgrimage to Gyanak Riwo Tse Nga after visiting my Monastery in Tibet and being able to spent one night at my monastery despite of the current political problem was a blessing. The day I arrived at Gyanak Riwo Tse Nga, people out there were celebrating the birthday of Manjushri and so many people have had gathered from different parts of the world. The moment I arrived on Gyanak Riwo Tse Nga, when I saw those five peaks of mountain, the feeling was overwhelming. Tears were rolling out spontaneously out of my eyes. It was my first time that I felt responsibility being the Tulku of Simdha Monastery and it was first time for the 20 years old boy then to experience the connection to dharma which was so surreal yet so strong. You could still feel the presence of Manjushri in those five peaks of mountain like the warmth of his love and compassion. It was there I made the aspiration that I could go to all the pilgrimage and since then I have had continue to cover as many of pilgrimages around the world as possible. I am truly grateful that I have been born with the privilege to practice the Buddha Dharma and be able to guide others into it. I will try my best to share every moment with all of you and hope to inspire some of you to go to some of the pilgrimages that I have been to. I am just a guy with the bun with a tittle which I am also not sure but in devotion to my guru Kyabje Mindrolling Trichen Rinpoche and His Holiness the 14^th Dalai Lama (yeshi norbu) who have entitled me with the name of Simdha Tulku and faith in them, I want to try my best to carry on with the tittle I have been shouldered with. 

Mount Wutai Shan 

The pilgrimage to Gyanak Riwo Tse Nga was full of new experience. Due to the festivity time, it was very difficult to get rooms. More than that, the real difficulty was that it was my first trip to abroad and neither I knew Chinese nor English. But people out there were very polite and welcoming and the pilgrimage went smoothly without many difficulties under the blessing of three jewels and Manjushri himself.

HISTORY

Since ancient times, Wutai Shan was known to be a mystical and sacred site inhabited by divine spirits dwell, accompanied by unusual events, such as miraculous light appearances at night, that can be seen up to the present day. Thus it attracted pilgrims in search for spiritual accomplishment.

In the ninth century Ch’eng-kuan (737-838), who was an influential commentator of Buddhist scriptures, having resided for ten years at Wutai Shan wrote:

“The splendid display of its resonant qualities fills the eyes and ears, and even so there are still more such excellent matters. Dragon palaces each in turn open up at night to a thousand moons. Fine and delicate grasses spread out in the mornings among hundreds of flowers. Sometimes there are ten thousand sages arrayed in space. Sometimes five coloured clouds are set firmly among the hill-gaps. Globes of light shine against the halcyon mountain. Auspicious birds soar in the hazy empyrean. One merely hears the name of the Great Sage Manjushri and no longer is beset by the cares of human existence.”

During the fifth century, the repeated visionary encounters of Manjushri and other bodhisattvas of pilgrims and hermits fostered believe that Wutai Shan is the earthly abode of Manjushri. In these visions Manjushri was reported to appear in “several forms, principally as a five-colored cloud, a glowing ball of light, a youthful prince astride a lion,” or in guise of a monk or mendicant. These stories entered local traditions, commentaries and were recorded on maps. The accounts were then believed to be further supported by Buddhist scriptures referring to and describing Manjushri’s residence. However, it is observed that Chinese translations of Buddhist scriptures were purposely edited as to create further scriptural authority and support for recognizing Wutai Shan.

Maps of Mount Wutai Shan

Manjushri became China's patron deity and the Buddhist Chinese rulers were regarded as Manjushri’s emanations. The first monastery was likely to be built by the Emperor Xiaowen (r. 471-499). Wutai Shan’s fame spread and was carried by the devotees across the Himalayan lands and into the plains of India. This inspired Tibetan, Mongol and Indian, scholars and practitioners to follow the accounts and explore the mountain.

Once reaching the mountain, like the Chinese devotees the foreign pilgrims experienced similar visionary encounter with Manjushri. The fame of Wutai Shan had spread and thus influenced the writings of non-Chinese Buddhist scriptures such as the Swayambhu Purana (Skt. Swayambhu Purāṇa), which recounts the origin of Buddhism in the Kathmandu valley.

The biography contains another account of a certain shamen called Ling Bian of the Later Wei dynasty who entered the Pure and Fresh Monastery with the sutra on his head asking Mañjuśrī for help in the study of the sutra. He later attained enlightenment. He also wrote 100 volumes of commentaries on the sutra during his stay in the monastery.

Indian, Tibetan and Mongol Buddhist teachers were often well respected by the Chinese court and thus granted a privileged position, which allowed them to establish monasteries at Wutai Shan. This then led to the establishment of a great diversity of monasteries and traditions at Wutai Shan. By and large Buddhism thrived in Wu Tai Shan at present times.

Prayers to Manjushree :  In Praise of Manjushree
                                        Great Treasure of Blessing