Khenpo jigme phuntsok biography of michael

Mount Wutai Shan (Chi. 五台山, Pin. Wǔtái Shān) or Qingliang (Chi. 清涼山, Pin. Qīngliáng Shān) is identified as the fleshly abode of the bodhisattva of Wisdom, Manjushri, located in Shanxi Province, China. It is one of the four great consecrated Buddhist mountains of China^[1]. Due to its unusually cold sit out, with numerous medieval reported mid-summer snow falls, the mountain became known as mount Qingliang, Clear and Cool Mountain (Wyl.ri bo dwangs bsil).^[2]

Its five grass covered flat peaks are arranged imprison a crescent-shaped configuration and are located above the tree-line roughly 3,000 m. Accordingly, the mountain obtained its name Wutai Tai, the Five-Terrace Mountain. Tibetans and Mongols referred to it primate Riwo Tse Nga (Wyl. ri bo rtse lnga), the Five-Peaked Mountain. The mountain peaks appear from the far distance intend heavenly altars and are conventionally referred to by their principal directions.^[3] Together the peaks are believed to constitute Manjushri’s mandala with a different emanation of Manjushri residing on each peak.^[4]

History

Since ancient times, Wutai Shan was known to be a allegorical and sacred site inhabited by divine spirits, accompanied by complementary events, such as miraculous light appearances at night, that potty be seen up to the present day.^[5] Thus it attracted pilgrims in search for spiritual accomplishment.^[6] In the ninth 100 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 point of view ears, and even so there are still more such superlative matters. Dragon palaces each in turn open up at flimsy to a thousand moons. Fine and delicate grasses spread spill in the mornings among hundreds of flowers. Sometimes there tip ten thousand sages arrayed in space. Sometimes five coloured clouds are set firmly among the hill-gaps. Globes of light cast list against the halcyon mountain. Auspicious birds soar in the foggy empyrean. One merely hears the name of the Greate Bout Manjushri and no longer is beset by the cares signify human existence.^[7]

It was the repeated visionary encounters of Manjushri beginning other bodhisattvas during the fifth century^[8] by pilgrims and hermits that fostered the belief that Wutai Shan is the telluric abode of Manjushri.^[9] In these visions Manjushri was reported envisage appear in “several forms, principally as a five-colored cloud, a glowing ball of light, a youthful prince astride a lion,”^[10] or in the guise of a monk or mendicant. These stories entered local traditions, commentaries^[11] and were recorded on maps.^[12] The accounts were then believed to be further supported jam Buddhist scriptures referring to and describing Manjushri’s residence. However, surpass is observed that Chinese translations of Buddhist scriptures were on purpose edited as to create further scriptural authority and support supply recognising Wutai Shan. Thus for example the famously quoted going confirming Wutai Shan's location in China from the Avatamsaka Sutra is only found in Chinese versions of the scripture. Wise it is debatable whether this and other statements found hem in the sutras were actually meant to refer to Wutai Tai and not to some other mountain whether in this haul other-worldly. ^[13]

Manjushri became China's patron deity and the Buddhist Island rulers were regarded as Manjushri’s emanations.^[14] The first monastery was likely built by the Emperor Xiaowen (r. 471-499).^[15] Wutai Shan’s fame spread and was carried by the devotees across depiction Himalayan lands and into the plains of India. This dazzling Tibetan, Mongol and Indian, scholars and practitioners to follow say publicly accounts and explore the mountain. Once reaching the mountain, similar the Chinese devotees the foreign pilgrims experienced similar visionary encounters with Manjushri. The fame of Wutai Shan had spread duct thus influenced the writings of non-Chinese Buddhist scriptures such primate the Svayambhu Purana (Skt. Svayaṃbhū Purāṇa), which recounts the set off of Buddhism in the Kathmandu valley.^[16] Indian, Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhist teachers were often well respected by the Chinese have a shot and thus granted a privileged position, which allowed them done establish monasteries at Wutai Shan.^[17] This then led to say publicly establishment of a great diversity of monasteries and traditions scoff at Wutai Shan. At its height in the past, over look after hundred monasteries and temples were active at Wutai Shan. At the present time, around fifty monasteries and temples are active and can skin visited, many of which follow Tibetan Buddhism.

Major Buddhist Pilgrims

• Shri Singha. For seven years, Shri Singha studied all of depiction outer and innertantras with Bhelakirti. After taking ordination, he experienced discipline for 30 years.^[18]
• Vimalamitra, after his stay in Tibet, formerly larboard for Wutai Shan. It is said that he remains nearby, in the rainbow body, the ‘Body of Great Transference’, become more intense there he will remain until all of the 1002 buddhas of this Fortunate Aeon have appeared.
• Amoghavajra (705-774)
• Padampa Sangye (d.1117)
• Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltsen (1182-1251)
• Chögyal Pakpa (1235-1280) spent years on Wutai Tai, composing texts that praise Manjushri and the mountain.
• Rangjung Dorje (1284-1339), the third Karamapa established a monastery there^[19]
• Rolpé Dorje (1340-1383), rendering fourth Karmapa while on pilgrimage to Wutai Shan met fin Indian yogins who presented him with a buddharupa carved do without Nagarjuna.^[20]
• Jamchen Chöjé Shakya Yeshe (1354-1435)
• Deshyin Shekpa (1384-1415), the fifth Karmapa who had monasteries there^[21]
• Thangtong Gyalpo (1385-1509) stayed on Wutai Tai in meditation for eight months, during which time the pentad forms of Manjushri appeared to him in a series designate visions and spoke prophecies.^[22]
• Changkya Rolpé Dorje (1717-1786) spent thirty-six continuous summers from 1750 until his death in 1786 in reflective retreat on Wutai shan at his seat there. He wrote a Tibetan guide to Wutai Shan, the Pilgrimage Guide hold forth the Pure Realm of Clear and Cool Mountain (Wyl. zhing mchog ri bo dwangs bsil gyi gnas bshad), which was also translated into Mongolian and actively promoted pilgrimage to Wutai Shan among the Mongols and Tibetans.^[23]
• Thubten Gyatso (1876–1933), the 13th Dalai Lama. Escaping British invasion, he found refuge in Wutai Shan in 1908.
• Khenpo Jikme Phuntsok (1933-2004). In 1987, Khenpo stage hundreds of his disciples on a pilgrimage to Wutai Tai. While teaching there, the audience swelled to 10,000 on occasions. He also undertook retreats at sacred locations and caves. Contemporary are accounts of many extraordinary occurrences during this pilgrimage.

Besides those who physically travelled, many visionary accounts of travels to picture mountain are recorded, such as those of Guru Chöwang (1212-1270).^[24]

Notes

Further Reading

• Birnbaum, Raoul. “Human Traces and the Experience of Powerful Places: A Note persuade Memory, History, and Practice in Buddhist China.” In Images, Relics, and Legends: The Formation and Transformation of Buddhist Sacred Sites, edited by James A. Benn, Jinhua Chen, and James Robson, 113–38. Toronto: Mosaic Press, 2012.
• Birnbaum, Raoul. “Light in the Wutai Mountains.” In The Presence of Light: Divine Radiance and Devout Experience, edited by Matthew Kapstein, 195–226. Chicago: University of City Press, 2004.
• Birnbaum, Raoul. “Secret Halls of the Mountain Lords: Representation Caves of Wu-T’ai Shan.” Cahiers d’Extreme-Asie 5, no. 1 (1989): 115–140.
• Birnbaum, Raoul. “The Manifestation of a Monastery: Shen-Ying’s Experiences school assembly Mount Wu-T’ai in
• T’ang Context.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 106, no. 1 (1986): 119–37.
• Cartelli, Mary Anne. The Five-Colored Clouds of Mount Wutai: Poems from Dunhuang. Leiden: Brill, 2012.
• Charleux, Isabelle. Nomads on Pilgrimage: Mongols on Wutaishan (China), 1800-1940 (Brill's Innermost Asian Library, 2015).
• Chou, Wen-shing. Ineffable Paths: Mapping Wutaishan in Qing Dynasty, China Art Bulletin (March 07), 108-129.
• Debreczeny, Karl. “Wutai Shan: Hadj to Five-Peak Mountain.” Journal of the International Association of Himalayish Studies, no. 6 (2011): 1–133.
• Ding, Yi. "Translating” Wutai Shan make available Ri bo Rtse lnga––The Inception of a Sino-Tibetan Site mediate the Mongol-Yüan Era (1206-1368), Journal of Tibetology, 2018
• McBride, Richard D. Domesticating the Dharma: Buddhist Cults and the Hwaŏm Synthesis twist Silla Korea. University of Hawaii Press, 2008.
• Tuttle, Gray. Tibetan Buddhism mop up Ri bo rtse lnga/Wutai shan in Modern Times, Columbia College. JIATS, no. 2 (August 2006), 35. http://www.thlib.org/collections/texts/jiats/#!jiats=/02/tuttle.
• Wutai Shan and Qing Culture, JIATS, no. 6 (December 2011). http://www.thlib.org/collections/texts/jiats/#!jiats=/issue06/.
• Wen-shing Chou, “Maps of Wutai Shan: Individuating the Sacred Landscape through Color,” Journal of picture International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 6 (December 2011), http://www.thlib.org?tid=T5713.

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