Mount Wutai
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How it came to be
Mount Wutai in Shanxi, China, has five flat-topped peaks, and its northern peak is the highest point in northern China. One of the four sacred mountains of Chinese Buddhism, it is held to be the home of the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, and temples were built here for nearly two thousand years, from the 1st century AD to the early 20th century.
Under the Northern Wei, nine emperors made 18 pilgrimages to the mountain between 471 and 499. Tang buildings survive: the main hall of Nanchan Temple of 782 and the East Hall of Foguang Temple of 857 are among the oldest timber buildings in China, the latter with life-size clay figures.
Shuxiang Temple, of the Ming, holds a group of 500 suspended statues. The two Tang halls were identified in 1937 and 1938 by architectural historians including Liang Sicheng. The mountain was inscribed in 2009.
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