Wutai Shan Pilgrimage To Five-Peak Mountain

Journal of the
International Association
of Tibetan Studies
Issue 6 — December 2011
ISSN 1550-6363
An online journal published by the Tibetan and Himalayan Library (THL)
www.jiats.org
Editor-in-Chief: David Germano
Guest Editors: Gray Tuttle, Johan Elverskog
Book Review Editor: Bryan J. Cuevas
Managing Editor: Steven Weinberger
Assistant Editor: William McGrath
Technical Director: Nathaniel Grove
Contents
Articles
• Wutai Shan: Pilgrimage to Five-Peak Mountain (pp. 1-133)

– Karl Debreczeny
• Tales of Conjured Temples (huasi) in Qing Period Mountain
Gazetteers (pp. 134-162)
– Susan Andrews
• Tibetan Buddhism at Wutai Shan in the Qing: The Chinese-language
Register (pp. 163-214)
– Gray Tuttle
• Tibetan Poetry on Wutai Shan (pp. 215-242)
– Kurtis R. Schaeffer
• Wutai Shan, Qing Cosmopolitanism, and the Mongols (pp. 243-274)
– Johan Elverskog
• Mongol Pilgrimages to Wutai Shan in the Late Qing Dynasty (pp. 275-326)
– Isabelle Charleux
• Bla brang Monastery and Wutai Shan (pp. 327-348)
– Paul K. Nietupski
• The Jiaqing Emperor’s Magnificent Record of the Western Tour (pp. 349-371)
– Patricia Berger
• Maps of Wutai Shan: Individuating the Sacred Landscape through
Color (pp. 372-388)
– Wen-shing Chou
• The Thirteenth Dalai Lama at Wutai Shan: Exile and Diplomacy (pp. 389-410)
– Elliot Sperling
• Gifts at Wutai Shan: Rockhill and the Thirteenth Dalai Lama (pp. 411-428)
– Susan Meinheit
ii
Article Related to JIATS Issue 4
• Of Horses and Motorbikes: Negotiating Modernities in Pastoral A mdo, Sichuan

Province (pp. 429-450)
– Lilian Iselin
Book Reviews
• Review of Jokhang: Tibet’s Most Sacred Buddhist Temple, by Gyurme Dorje, Tashi
Tsering, Heather Stoddard, and André Alexander (pp. 451-466)
– Cameron David Warner
• Review of Buddhism and Empire: The Political and Religious Culture of Early
Tibet, by Michael Walter (pp. 467-471)
– Sam van Schaik
Abstracts (pp. 472-476)
Contributors to this Issue (pp. 477-480)
iii
Wutai shan: Pilgrimage to Five-Peak Mountain
Karl Debreczeny
Rubin Museum of Art
Abstract: The sacred mountain Wutai shan, located in Shanxi Province, China,
is believed to be the earthly abode of the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, Mañjuśrī. While
Wutai shan was a sacred site to Chinese Buddhists as far back as the fifth century,
from the seventh century on, it became an international pilgrimage center, attracting
Buddhist pilgrims from as far away as India, Kashmir, Tibet, Japan, and Korea.
By the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Wutai shan had become especially
important to Tibetans, Mongols, and Manchus, when Tibetan Buddhism was at its
apex there and the mountain was a confluence of Himalayan cultures. The exhibition
“Wutaishan: Pilgrimage to Five-Peak Mountain” (2007) introduced the nature
of this transnational pilgrimage site dedicated to the embodiment of wisdom,
Mañjuśrī, and explored the rich interrelationships between faith, politics, ethnicity,
and identity which make the site unique. The accompanying introductory essay
explores the history of Tibetan involvement on the mountain.
Introduction
The sacred Five-Peak Mountain
(Wutai shan, 五臺山, ri bo rtse lnga),
located in Shanxi Province (Shanxi sheng,
山西省), China (Fig. 1), is believed to be
the earthly abode of the Bodhisattva
Mañjuśrī (’jam dpal dbyangs; Fig. 2).
While Wutai shan was a sacred site to
Chinese Buddhists as far back as the fifth
century, from the seventh century on, it
became an international pilgrimage
Figure 1. Map of Cultural Convergence at Wutai center, attracting Buddhist pilgrims from
shan. as far away as India, Kashmir, Tibet,
Japan, and Korea. By the eighteenth century Wutai shan had become especially
important to Tibetans, Mongols, and Manchus. Although most studies have focused
on the Chinese experience at Wutai shan, especially during the Tang (唐, 618-906)
Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 6 (December 2011): 1-133.
http://www.thlib.org?tid=T5714.
1550-6363/2011/6/T5714.
© 2011 by Karl Debreczeny, Tibetan and Himalayan Library, and International Association of Tibetan Studies.
Distributed under the THL Digital Text License.
Debreczeny: Wutai shan: Pilgrimage to Five-Peak Mountain 2
and Song (宋, 960-1279) dynasties,1 the Columbia University conference “Wutai
Shan and Qing Culture” held at the Rubin Museum of Art (May 12-13, 2007) and
the coinciding exhibition “Wutaishan: Pilgrimage to Five-Peak Mountain” (May
10-October 16, 2007)2 together highlighted a period from the seventeenth to
twentieth century when Tibetan Buddhism was at its apex there and the mountain
was a place of confluence with Himalayan cultures.
Over the course of 1500 years not only has this complex of mountains been a
nexus of pilgrimage, cosmological conceptualization and cultural exchange, but
it has also been the focal point of various religio-political discourses. The
concatenation of these forces undoubtedly reached its apogee during the long reign
of the Manchus, who were not only portrayed as emanations of the bodhisattva of
wisdom, but also fostered the folk etymology of their ethnonym as deriving from
Mañjuśrī. Yet, while this project of symbolic appropriation is now common
knowledge, less is known about how it affected the inherently transnational nature
of this site. In other words, an important unanswered question is: how did the
various discourses during the Qing dynasty (清, 1644-1911) actually engage, shape
and influence the practices and conceptualizations of the constituents of the Qing
Empire? Moreover, how did innovations or transformations on the margins impact
the imperial center? The aim of this conference was to employ the historical
1
On the Chinese experience on Wutai shan, see for instance the writings of Raoul Birnbaum
(“Buddhist Meditation Teachings and the Birth of ‘Pure’ Landscape Painting in China,” Studies on the
Mysteries of Manjusri, “The Manifestation of a Monastery: Shen-Ying’s Experiences on Mount Wu-t’ai
in T’ang Context,” “Secret Halls of the Mountain Lords: The Caves of Wu-t’ai,” “Visions of Manjusri
on Mount Wutai,” and “Light in the Wutai Mountains”) and Robert Gimello (“Chang Shang-ying on
Wu-ta’i Shan” and “Wu-t’ai shan during the Early Chin Dynasty: The Testimony of Chu Pien”). Only
very recently have important inroads been published in western scholarship on the Tibetan involvement
on Wutai shan: Gray Tuttle, Tibetan Buddhists in the Making of Modern China (New York, NY:
Columbia University Press, 2005); and Gray Tuttle, “Tibetan Buddhism at Ri bo rtse lnga/Wutai shan
in Modern Times,” Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 2 (August 2006):
1-35, http://www.thlib.org?tid=T2723 (a paper originally presented at the 1998 meeting of the
International Association of Tibetan Studies held in Bloomington, Indiana); Natalie Köhle, “Why Did
the Kangxi Emperor Go to Wutai Shan?: Patronage, Pilgrimage, and the Place of Tibetan Buddhism
at the Early Qing Court,” Late Imperial China 29, no. 1 (June 2008): 73-119 (based on her 2006 MA
thesis); and Wen-shing Chou, “Ineffable Paths: Mapping Wutaishan in Qing Dynasty China,” Art
Bulletin 89, no. 1 (March 2007): 108-29. This new generation of scholarship on Wutai shan in late
imperial times culminated in the conference “Wutaishan and Qing Culture” with which this exhibition
was conceived. As one will see from the many Chinese secondary sources cited here, Chinese interest
in Tibetan Buddhism on Wutai shan began to appear in print in the late 1980s and 1990s.
2
The author would like to thank co-curator of the exhibition Jeff Watt for all of his suggestions,
input, and his guidance in mounting the exhibition. Thanks also to Donald Rubin and Caron Smith for
their support appointing me the first Rubin Museum of Art curatorial fellow which gave me the
opportunity to work on this project. Special thanks to Wen-shing Chou and Gray Tuttle for
enthusiastically sharing their materials, and to David Newman for his collaboration creating the on-line
interactive digitally decoded 1846 map of Wutai shan. Gene Smith of TBRC and Pema Bhum of Latse
Library were both invaluable in locating Tibetan sources, as well as clearing up several questions arising
out of the literature. Thanks to Jann Ronis and Alex Gardner, fellow Rubin Foundation Scholars in
Residence, for their help in coming to accessible yet faithful translations of Tibetan texts. Thanks to
Elliot Sperling, Gray Tuttle, Johan Elverskog, Kristina Dy-Liacco, Helen Abbott and Neil Liebman
for their many valuable suggestions in improving this essay. Also thanks to Jessica Klein, Lisa Arcomano,
John Monaco, Dudu Etzion, Jennie Coyne, Kathryn Selig-Brown, Kei Tateyama and Zhu Runxiao for
their help at various stages of the exhibition and publication.
Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 6 (December 2011) 3
importance and transnational nature of Wutai shan in order to attempt a

re-evaluation of Qing culture.
Within this framework the concurrent
exhibition sought to introduce the nature
of this transnational pilgrimage site
dedicated to the embodiment of wisdom,
Mañjuśrī, and explore the rich
interrelationships between faith, politics,
ethnicity and identity which make the site
unique. As Wutai shan is located in
China, this exhibition also sought to
highlight the importance of Himalayan
art which extends well outside the
traditionally narrow confines of the
Himalayas. The broad cultural diversity
characteristic of Himalayan art is reflected
in the objects in this exhibition, which
come from Nepal, Tibet, Mongolia, and
China and include paintings, sculptures,
masks, and book covers and feature a
six-foot wide woodblock print (Cat. 1), a
panoramic view of Wutai shan filled with
Figure 2. Chinese Form of Mañjuśrī. Yuanzhao
temples and miraculous visions.
si, Wutai shan. Photograph by Gray Tuttle.
The Mountain
Wutai shan is identified by its five flat-topped peaks, the origin of its Chinese
name, “Five-Terrace Mountain” (Wutai shan, 五臺山).3 In Tibetan and Mongolian
the site is known as “Five-Peak Mountain” (ri bo rtse lnga) from whence the
exhibition takes its name. Each peak is inhabited by a unique form of Mañjuśrī.4
Wutai shan is Mañjuśrī’s “field of activity” or “place of practice” (daochang, 道
場, maṇḍa), where a Buddha or high-ranking bodhisattva exerts his or her influence
3
Wutai shan as a geographic place is not actually a single mountain, but in fact a group of five
mountains arranged in a rough semicircular arc, which have been identified with the five peaks of
Mañjuśrī’s abode.
4
The Mañjuśrī astrological system arranges the mountain’s five peaks into a cosmic diagram (maṇḍala,
dkyil ’khor) format, with each peak placed in a cardinal direction and assigned a corresponding primary
color under one of the five Buddha realms: on South Peak (Fig. 4, no. 2) resides a white form of Mañjuśrī
called Jñānasattva on a peak of semi-precious stones (turquoise?; blue), associated with the realm of
the Buddha Ratnasaṁbhava; on the West Peak (Fig. 4, no. 9) resides a form of Mañjuśrī seated on a
lion called Vādisiṁha on a peak made of rubies (red), associated with the realm of the Buddha Amitābha;
on the Central Peak (Fig. 4, no. 11) resides a form of Mañjuśrī wielding a sword called Mañjuśrī Nātha
on a peak of gold (yellow), associated with the realm of the Buddha Vairocana; on the North Peak (Fig.
4, no. 18) resides a form of Mañjuśrī called Vimala, meaning “Stainless” on a peak of sapphire (green),
associated with the realm of Amoghasiddhi; on East Peak (Fig. 4, no. 28) resides a four-armed form
of Mañjuśrī called Mañjughoṣa Tikṣṇa on a peak of crystal (white), associated with the realm of
Akṣobhya.
and preaches, greatly aiding the faithfuls’ ability to develop spiritually and attain
enlightenment. What is important about Mañjuśrī’s field is that unlike many other
buddhafields, or pure realms, such as Amitābha’s Western Paradise (sukhāvatī)
into which one prays to be reborn, Mañjuśrī’s is thought to be here on earth and
is associated with a particular geographic location, reachable by foot, and thus the
focus of both local and international pilgrimage.
The numerous anecdotes concerning
his miraculous appearances constitute an
important aspect of the cult of Mañjuśrī
at Wutai shan. Pilgrims who visit this
sacred mountain go to see visions of
Mañjuśrī. These have often taken the form
of miraculous light and cloud formations,
for which the mountain is famous (Fig.
Figure 3. Miraculous Light over Pusa ding.
3). Accounts of these encounters with the
Wutai shan. Photograph by Gray Tuttle. divine were first compiled in Chinese
gazetteers beginning in the seventh
century, which helped to spread the cult of this mountain; they were later translated
and adapted into Tibetan, Mongolian, and Manchu. Visual records of these divine
manifestations were also mapped onto the mountain (Cat. 1) as discussed by Chou,5
and brought to life in the exhibition through an interactive digitally decoded map
(http://wutaishan.rma2.org/rma_viewer.php?image_id=1&mode=info, Fig. 4).
Wutai shan, also known in Chinese as “Clear and Cool Mountain” (Qingliang shan,
清涼山, ri bo dwangs bsil), is one of the four great sacred mountains in China,
and its importance is underscored by the fact that more gazetteers were produced
for Wutai shan than for any other pilgrimage site.6 As the introduction to one
edition of its gazetteer, Records of Clear and Cool Mountain (Qingliang chuan),
put it: “Qingliang shan (Wutai shan) is foremost among all sacred mountains for
those who hold mystic manifestation to be the essence of Buddhism.”7
5
Wen-shing Chou, “Maps of Wutai Shan: Individuating the Sacred Landscape through Color,”
Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 6 (December 2011),
6
Wutai shan’s gazetteer had twenty editions, whereas the next largest Tai Mountain (Tai shan), Emei
Mountain (Emei shan, 峨眉山), and Putuo Mountain (Putuo shan, 普陀山) only had half as many with
ten each. Gray Tuttle (“Tibetan Buddhism at Wutai Shan in the Qing: The Chinese-language Register,”
Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 6 [December 2011],
http://www.thlib.org?tid=T5721) notes that “not only does the number of Qing gazetteers devoted to
Wutai shan exceed those of almost any other site in the empire, but their production was also more
closely connected to the imperial court than any other place.” The other three mountains in the set of
four great Buddhist mountains of China (Si da ming shan, 四大名山), each with their own bodhisattva
in residence, are: Putuo Mountain (Putuo shan, 普陀山) in Zhejiang Province (Zhejiang, 浙江省), seat
of the Bodhisattva of Compassion (avalokiteśvara); Emei Mountain in Sichuan, seat of the Bodhisattva
Samantabhadra; and Jiuhua Mountain (Jiuhua shan, 九華山) in Anhui, seat of the Bodhisattva
Ākāśagarbha.
7
Preface to the Records of Clear and Cool Mountain (Qingliang chuan), dated 1164. Translated by
Robert Gimello, “Wu-t’ai shan during the Early Chin dynasty: The Testimony of Chu Pien,” Zhonghua
Foxue xue bao 7 (1994): 514.
Figure 4. 1846 Wutai shan map and key with Tibetan.
More than 120 sites of interest to the pilgrims who ventured to Wutai shan are labeled with Chinese
and Tibetan inscriptions on this 19th-century woodblock, including Buddhist monasteries, Taoist
temples, villages, sacred objects, and locations of events, both historic and miraculous.
-
Early Political Significance
Figure 5. Chos rgyal ’phags pa (1235-1280).

Tibet; late 17th century. Pigments on cloth; 26"
h. Purchased from the Collection of Navin Figure 6. Shākya ye shes. Embroidered thang
Kumar, New York. Rubin Museum of Art. ka, Xuande period (circa 1434-35). (After
C2002.3.2 (HAR 65046). precious deposits, Fig. 55).
Since the eighth century Mañjuśrī has been seen as the patron deity of China;
therefore, Wutai shan was a focus of imperial attention. Rulers tied their own
legitimacy to the deity and promoted his cult at Wutai shan, blurring and
intertwining religious, state, and ethnic identities. Already in the eighth century a
foreign monk from the Central Asian city of Samarkand, Amoghavajra (Bukong
Jingang, 不空金剛, 705-774), who rose in the ranks of the official bureaucracy
and became one of the most politically powerful monks in Chinese history, was
instrumental in establishing Mañjuśrī as the protector of the nation and the emperor
and in fostering the cult of pilgrimage at Wutai shan. Amoghavajra initiated the
Chinese emperor as a divinely anointed Buddhist ruler (cakravartin) in 759, linking
Mañjuśrī worship at Wutai shan and the imperial cult. A miraculous “true image”
of Mañjuśrī on his lion, which was said to have been made with Mañjuśrī’s own
assistance in the eighth century and is therefore seen as being a true likeness (or
“true image”) of the deity, was installed at the Cloister of the True Contenance
(Zhenrong yuan, 真容院; later renamed Pusa ding, 菩薩頂, byang chub sems dpa’i
spor, Fig. 4, no. 14) and became an early focus of imperial patronage at Wutai
shan. Rituals for the protection and preservation of the nation subsequently became
a characteristic feature of state involvement at Wutai shan. In fact, mountain worship
had long been an integral part of the Chinese state cult, wherein the emperor
communed with heaven and received its mandate to rule the earth.8 This was
therefore a traditional application of Buddhist theology to statecraft within China,
and it provided an important early Chinese model sanctioned by historical precedent
for later Tibetan religious masters who served successively at the Mongol, Chinese,
and Manchu imperial courts at Wutai shan, such as ’Phags pa (Fig. 5 and Cat. 25)
in the thirteenth century, Shākya ye shes (Shijia Yeshi, 釋迦也失, d. 1435; Fig.
6) in the fifteenth century, and Lcang skya rol pa’i rdo rje (Cat. 2) in the eighteenth
century. While Chinese temples vastly outnumbered Tibetan and Mongolian
monasteries on Wutai shan, by the seventeenth century Tibetan Buddhism came
to hold a disproportionately prominent place of religious and political authority
there, and Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhists were charged by the imperial throne
to govern all religious affairs on the mountain.
Tibetan Identification with Wutai shan

The earliest Chinese texts that refer to Mañjuśrī’s residence at Wutai shan are late
seventh- to early eighth-century translations of the Flower Garland Sūtra
(avataṃsaka sūtra, Huayan jing, 華嚴經) and the Mañjuśrī Precious Treasury of
the Law Dhāraṇī Sūtra (mañjuśrī-dharma-ratnagarbha-dhāraṇī sūtra, [Wenshu
shili fa] Baozang tuoluoni jing, [文殊師利法]寶藏陀羅尼經), both of which are
quoted in the opening passage of the trilingual dedicatory inscription on the bottom
of the panoramic map of Wutai shan (Cat. 1, texts 1-3).9 The presence of this text
serves as a kind of scriptural authentication of the mountain as Mañjuśrī’s realm
and the image as an accurate reflection of the site. However, the Tibetan version
of the Ratnagarbha-dhāraṇī Sūtra (rin chen snying po gzungs) does not mention
Mañjuśrī or Clear and Cool Mountain, and the original Sanskrit version is no longer
extant. Furthermore, it has been suggested that the Chinese translation of the Flower
Garland Sūtra was falsified to assign Mañjuśrī a dwelling place in China.10
8
See Stephen Bokenkamp, “Record of the Feng and Shan Sacrifices,” in Religions of China in
Practice (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996), 251-61.
9
Taisho 279.10.1b-444c; and Taisho 1185 (Takakusu Junjirō and Watanabe Kaigyoku, eds., Taishō
shinshū daizōkyō (Tokyo: Taisho issaikyo kankokai, 1924-32). The trilingual dedication texts are
translated at the end of the entry for catalog number 1 (Cat. 1).
10
Étienne Lamotte, “Mañjuśrī,” T'oung Pao 158 (1960): 61; Mary Anne Cartelli, “On a Five-colored
Cloud: The Songs of Mount Wutai,” Journal of the American Oriental Society (Oct 2004): 738. The
Flower Garland Sūtra (avataṃsaka sūtra) with references to “Clear and Cool Mountain” as Mañjuśrī’s
abode in China was translated in 699 for the infamous empress Wu Zetian, China’s only female emperor.
The political application of Buddhism at the Chinese court reached new heights in the late seventh to
early eighth centuries under the empress Wu, who was the first to openly promote herself as a bodhisattva
and officially adopt titles and symbols of Buddhist absolute sacral power. Empress Wu Zetian went so
far as to liken her rule to the millenarian prophesy of the coming of the Future Buddha Maitreya. Wu
Zitian enjoyed power for almost half a century, and from 690-705 ruled as China’s sole female emperor.
Confucian strictures against women’s involvement in politics, let alone female rulership, likely forced
her to seek a new ideology to legitimate her power. Subtly interpolated translations of Buddhist texts,
such as the Flower Garland Sūtra, with cryptic passages inserted to bolster her claims of divinity, were
part of a well coordinated Buddhist campaign of legitimation, reinforcing Wu Zitian as a cakravartin
ruler and a bodhisattva. For instance an interpolated translation of the Baoyu jing (寶雨經), or Sutra
Interestingly, where the Tibetan inscription on the Wutai shan map “quotes” the
Ratnagarbha-dhāraṇī [Sūtra] (rin chen snying po gzungs) it does not give the
Tibetan for a common deity such as Vajrapāṇi but instead gives a cumbersome
transcription from the Chinese, strongly suggesting that this passage of the text
was a Chinese interpolation unknown in Tibetan.11
Figure 7a. Great White Stūpa (Tayuan si) on

Wutai shan.
Figure 7. Great White Stūpa on Wutai shan.
Photograph by Gray Tuttle.
One important source of the later common Tibetan identification of Wutai shan
in China with the earthly abode of Mañjuśrī comes from far west in Nepal, in the
famous legend of the creation of the Kathmandu Valley.12 This legend tells that
of Precious Rain, was presented at court in 693 with such references. Wu Zitian adopted the title
“Golden Wheel Cakravartin August Divine Emperor” (Jinlun Shengshen Huangdi, 金輪生身皇帝)
less than two weeks later, and even had the seven jewels of the monarch (baoqi, 寶七) – the symbols
of the divinely anointed cakravartin ruler – displayed at court during audiences. This was the first time
in Chinese history that a sovereign officially adopted a title and symbols of Buddhist absolute sacral
power (Antonio Forte, Political Propaganda and Ideology in China at the End of the Seventh Century
[Naples, 1977], 143, fn. 75). On her activity on Wutai shan, see: Tansen Sen, Buddhism, Diplomacy,
and Trade: The Realignment of Sino-Indian Relations, 600-1400 (Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i
Press, 2003), 79-81.
11
Rgyal bo kyin kang me kyi is transliterated from the Chinese, Jingang Miji Wang (金剛密跡王;
William E. Soothill, A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms: With Sanskrit and English Equivalents
and a Sanskrit-Pali Index [London : K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1937], 281; a form of Vajrapāṇi).
Other such differences between the Chinese and Tibetan inscriptions can be found on this map, see
translations of the trilingual inscriptions in entry for Cat. 1.
12
The earliest source is probably the History of the Svāyambhū Stūpa (svāyambhūpurāṇa, bal yul
rang byung mchod rten chen po’i lo rgyus), the date of which is unknown. The earliest dated extant
copy appears to be as late as 1522. On the difficulty of dating this text see: Theodore Riccardi, “Some
Preliminary Remarks on a Newari Painting of Svayambhūnāth,” Journal of the American Oriental
Mañjuśrī, seated on the tallest peak of his mountain dwelling in China, saw the
light of a relic far to the west, but when he flew there found that a lake prevented
beings from reaching it, so he cut a gorge with his sword, forming the Kathmandu
Valley. Atop this relic a reliquary (stūpa, mchod rten) was built, which was
originally called Mañjuśrī Stūpa (mañju-caitya; Cat. 16) and later renamed
Svāyambhū, one of the greatest Buddhist sacred sites in Nepal. Mañjuśrī (Cat. 17)
is also central to the geography and culture of Nepal and appears throughout
Nepalese ritual life. The centrality of the stūpa (an architectural symbol of wisdom)
in this tale is parallel to the Great White Stūpa (Baita si, 白塔寺) on Wutai shan
(Fig. 7; Fig. 4, no. 40), which has become an icon for the mountain itself. This is
part of a larger concept of the sacred geography of Mañjuśrī, connecting sites like
Kathmandu in Nepal and Wutai shan in China. The Mañjuśrī system, which became
one of the main Tibetan systems of astrology and divination (Cat. 50), also came
to be seen as having been taught by Mañjuśrī specifically at Wutai shan.13
Tibetan Involvement with Wutai shan
Figure 8. Depiction of Wutai shan. Dunhuang Cave 61, West Wall. China; Mogao Caves, Dunhuang,
Gansu Province.
Tibetan interest in Wutai shan was expressed as early as the Tibetan imperial
period (seventh-ninth century), when Tibet arose as one of the greatest military
powers of Asia and the first significant cultural interactions between Tibet and
China were recorded. According to one early Tibetan historical source, the
Society 93, no. 3 (Jul.-Sept. 1973): 336, fn. 7. For a summary of this legend, see: Keith Dowman, Power
Places of Kathmandu: Hindu and Buddhist Sites in the Sacred Valley of Nepal (Rochester, VT: Inner
Traditions International; London, UK: Thames & Hudson, 1995). Si tu paṇ chen also made an
annotated/critical translation of the Svāyambhūpurāṇa, the History of the Svāyambhū Stūpa (bal yul
rang byung mchod rten chen po’i lo rgyus). See: Hubert Decleer, “Si tu Paṇ chen’s Translation of the
Svayaṃbhū Purāṇa and His Role in the Development of the Kathmandu Valley Pilgrimage Guide (gnas
yig) Literature,” in Si-tu Paṇ-chen: His Contribution and Legacy, edited by Tashi Tsering et al.
(Dharamshala, India: Amnye Machen Institute, 2000), 33-64. For an annotated translation of the
Descriptive Catalog of Svāyambhū (’phags pa shing kun gyi dkar chag) by Nas lung pa ngag dbang
rdo rje (b. seventeenth century), see: Keith Dowman, “A Buddhist Guide to the Power Places of the
Kathmandu Valley,” Kailash: A Journal of Inter-disciplinary Studies (1981): 183-291.
13
It is unclear when this association first started, though it is mentioned by the fourteenth century.
See Cat. 50.
Testament of Ba (sba bzhed), Tibetan envoys returning from China circa 755 made
a long detour in order to return via Wutai shan.14 Also it is said that several
eighth-century figures prominent in the establishment of Buddhism in Tibet, such
as the Indian master Vimalamitra, one of the founding figures of the early Tibetan
Rdzogs chen meditation tradition, were said to have “set out for Wutai shan.”15
Later historians, such as the famous Tibetan scholar Bu ston rin chen grub
(1290-1364) in his Bde gshegs bstan pa’i gsal byed chos kyi ’byung gnas, projected
back contemporary interest in Wutai shan to the imperial period, writing that the
first Tibetan emperor, Srong btsan sgam po (ca. 569-649; r. 617-650), went to
Wutai shan and built one hundred and eight temples there.16 Early Tibetan interest
in Wutai shan is also corroborated in more contemporary Chinese official histories
such as the Old Tang Dynasty History (Jiu tangshu), which records that in 824 the
Tibetan emperor requested a map of Wutai shan from the Tang court.17 Shortly
afterward in the 830s, the earliest depictions of Wutai shan in murals at Dunhuang,
an important Buddhist center of activity and a trade site along the Silk Route
bordering Tibet, China, and Central Asia, were being painted when the Tibetan
14
Sba’ bzhed zhabs btags ma (Sba bzhed zhabs btags ma (btsan po khri srong lde btsan dang mkhan
po slob dpon padma’i dus mdo sngags so sor mdzad pa’i sba bzhed zhabs btags ma) Chengdu: Sichuan
minzu chubanshe, 1990), 93; Matthew Kapstein, The Tibetan Assimilation of Buddhism Conversion,
Contestation, and Memory (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2000), 72; citing the Testament of
Ba (Sba gsal snang, Sba bzhed ces bya ba las sba gsal snang gi bzhed pa bzhugs [Beijing: Mi rigs dpe
skrun khang, Beijing, 1980], 8). This passage does not appear in other editions of the Sba bzhed/Sba’
bzhed published by the Austrian Academy of Science (H. Diemberger and Pasang Wangdu, eds., dBa’
bzhed: The Royal Narrative Concerning the Bringing of the Buddha [Vienna: Austrian Academy of
Science], 2000) or R. A. Stein, Une chronique ancienne de bSam-yas, sBa-bžed (Paris: Institut des
hautes études chinoises, 1961).
15
Bdud ’joms ’jigs bral ye shes rdo rje [Dudjom Rinpoché], The Nyingma School of Tibetan
Buddhism: Its Fundamentals and History, trans. Gyurme Dorje (Boston, MA: Wisdom Publications,
1991), vol. 1, 555. Of course it is quite possible that this reflects more the popularity of Wutai shan at
a much later time when these historical texts were written down, in which the contemporary relationship
with the mountain was being projected back into the past. Buddhajñānapāda (active eighth century) is
also said to have set out for Wutai shan to meet Mañjuśrī (Dudjom Rinpoché, Nyingma School, 495).
At about the same time Vimalamitra’s teacher, the master Śrī Siṃha, was said to have studied the
doctrines of mantra on the five-peaked mountain of Wutai shan under the outcaste master Bhelakīrti
(Dudjom Rinpoché, Nyingma School, 497). Some suggest that Buddhajñānapāda and Śrī Siṃha are
one and the same person (Samten Karmay, The Great Perfection (rDzogs chen): A Philosophical and
Meditative Teaching of Tibetan Buddhism [Leiden; New York: E. J. Brill, 1988], 63, fn. 16). At other
times Tibetan masters, such as the treasure revealer (gter ston) Guru Chos kyi dbang phyug (1212-1270),
traveled to Wutai shan in their dreams to receive teachings from Mañjuśrī (Dudjom Rinpoché, Nyingma
School, 763). Later, in the fifteenth century, a ’Bri gung monk ran away to Wutai shan. See: Elliot
Sperling, “Early Ming Policy toward Tibet: An Examination of the Proposition that the Early Ming
Emperors Adopted a ‘Divide and Rule Policy,’” PhD diss., Indiana University, 1983.
16
“Then the king having gone to Five Peaked Mountain in China built one-hundred and eight temples”
(de nas rgyal pos rgya nag ri bo rtse lngar byon nas lha khang brgya rtsa brgyad bzhengs so/). Bu
ston rin chen grub, Bde gshegs bstan pa’i gsal byed chos kyi ’byung gnas [Bu ston chos ’byung; History
of Buddhism in India and Tibet] (Beijing: Zhongguo Zangxue zhongxin, 1988), 183; Eugéne Obermiller,
The History of Buddhism in India and Tibet (New Delhi: Paljor Publications, 1999), 185; Li Jicheng,
“Zangchuan Fojiao yu Wutai Shan,” Wutai shan yanjiu, no. 4 (1988): 16.
17
Dorothy Wong, “A Reassessment of the Representation of Mt Wutai from Dunhuang Cave 61,”
Archives of Asian Art 46 (1993): 38; citing the Old Tang Dynasty History (Jiu tangshu), 945, juan 17,
Jingzong ji, juan 196, and Tufan zhuan [Liu Xu et al., Jiu Tangshu (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1975)]).
empire occupied the area.18 Tibetans would, therefore, have been aware to some
degree of Chinese associations with Mañjuśrī at Wutai shan since at least the ninth
century.
Although many of these early images
of Wutai shan were simple and schematic,
by the tenth century sophisticated
topographic devotional paintings of Wutai
shan appeared in the caves of Dunhuang,
like the main mural in Cave 61 (Fig. 8).19
In this wall painting on China’s northern
frontier with Tibet and Mongolia, many
of the inscriptive and visual conventions
Figure 9. Map from gazetteer of Wutai shan. for depicting the topographic, historical,
Qingliang shan zhi, dated 1596. and miraculous narrative landmarks of
Wutai shan, which also appear in the panoramic map dated 1846 in this exhibition
(Cat. 1), are already established.20 Thus, this nineteenth-century map is part of a
larger visual tradition of depicting Wutai shan as the pure realm of Mañjuśrī, one
that stretches back nearly a millennium. Topographically, these maps are also
closely related to woodblock maps that were printed in the local gazetteers of Wutai
shan, which first started being published in the seventh century and continue to
appear up to the present day (Fig. 9).21 However, more than just conveying
geographical information, these panoramic images of Wutai shan are devotional
in nature, and, as Dorothy Wong puts it, they “translate a religious ideology, a
cosmography into pictorial form of a landscape in a reconstructed space analogical
to reality.”22
Tangut Western Xia (Xixia, 西夏)

During the early eleventh and twelfth centuries Wutai shan was becoming very
popular in this same area among groups with close cultural, political, and economic
ties to Tibet, like the Tanguts, who took over the Dunhuang area in 1036. The
18
Simple depictions of Wutai shan from this period can be found in Caves 159, and 361 (Wong, “A
Reassessment,” 41). The Tibetan occupation of Dunhuang was from 781-848. During the eighth and
ninth centuries the Tibetan empire ruled over large Chinese subject populations in the Hexi area.
However, the phrase “Ri bo rtse lnga” does not seem to appear in the oldest Tibetan documents
(eighth-ninth centuries) published in Choix de documents tibetains a la Bibliotheque nationale.
19
See Wong, “A Reassessment.” Chinese textual evidence suggests that murals of Wutai shan were
already being painted in China during the late Tang period (ninth century?). Cave 61 is dated to ca.
947-957, and the major donor was a member of the local ruling Cao family, who were major patrons
of Buddhist artistic projects in the area. Interestingly all of the donors listed in this cave are women.
See Wong, “A Reassessment,” 28-29, 38. However, members of the Dunhuang Research Academy
have recently revised the dating of the paintings in Cave 61 to the fourteenth century.
20
Chou, “Ineffable Paths,” 116.
21
For a comparison of the Wutai shan woodblock to a contemporary gazetteer map (printed 1887)
see: Chou, “Ineffable Paths,” 109-10.
22
Wong, “A Reassessment,” 45.
Tangut Empire of Western Xia (Xixia, 西夏) was a multi-ethnic state located along
the Silk Route that included large Chinese and Tibetan subject populations and
drew heavily on Chinese cultural models in establishing its own imperial culture.
Buddhism served to legitimize the Tangut state and engendered lavish imperial
patronage, which consciously included an active mixture of Chinese and Tibetan
clergy.23 The prominent place that Mañjuśrī held within the Chinese imperial cult,
coupled with his role as protector of the state, would have made involvement at
Wutai shan a natural step in the development of Tangut Buddhist state ideology.
Also Wutai’s close association with Flower Garland (Avataṃsaka, Huayan, (華
嚴) Buddhism, to which the Tanguts were especially devoted, further assured
Tangut interest in Wutai shan.24 The Tangut rulers not only patronized many sites
at Wutai shan but even went so far as to build their own Wutai shan complex in
the Helan Mountains (Helan shan, 賀蘭山) to the west of their capital some time
in the eleventh century, calling it “Northern Wutai shan,” where major temples on
Wutai shan like Qingliang si (清涼寺) and Foguang si (佛光寺; Fig. 4, no. 1) were
re-created.25 This was not a strategy unique among peoples of Inner Asia, whose
access to Wutai shan were limited due to the complex political relations with China.
The Khitans of the Liao dynasty (遼, 907-1125) also built their own surrogate site
well within their borders, calling it “Little Wutai shan,” and much later the Mongols
would also follow suit, building their own “Little Wutai shan.”26
By the late twelfth to early thirteenth century, as Wutai shan became increasingly
important to Tibet, Tibetans began to write the site back into accounts of their
ancient history.27 For instance Nyang ral nyi ma ’od zer (1136-1204), a famous
treasure revealer of the Rnying ma order, who wrote several influential accounts
of the lives of Padmasambhava and the Tibetan “religious kings” of the eighth
century, included an account of the divine conception of the Tibetan btsan po, Khri
srong lde btsan (742-796), through the intersession of Mañjuśrī from Wutai shan
23
The Tangut emperors presented themselves as sacral cakravartin rulers. The cakravartin, or “wheel
turning king,” was a concept of sacral rule in India that was imported into Central and East Asia with
Buddhism, whereby conquest was presented as a proselytizing tool, and thus gave the ruler divine
sanction to expand his empire. Among the northern nomads the Tangut emperors were known as the
Burqan Khan, or “Buddha Khan.” Christopher P. Atwood, Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol
Empire (New York: Facts on File, 2004), 48.
24
Gimello, “Wu-t’ai shan,” 506.
25
The first record of Tangut patronage of sites on Wutai shan was in 1007, when the Tangut ruler
made offerings at ten temples, and the earliest known references to the Tangut’s “Northern Wutai shan”
date to the late eleventh century. Ruth Dunnell, The Great State of White and High: Buddhism and
State Formation in Eleventh-century Xia (Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i Press, 1996), 35-36;
Gimello, “Wu-t’ai shan,” 507.
26
See 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; and Gimello, “Wu-t’ai shan,” 507.
27
See for instance described below, as well as the history of the Pacification of Suffering (Zhi byed)
which, according to Dan Martin, also dates to the early thirteenth century, contained in the Zhi byed
snga bar phyi gsum gyi skor (Zhi byed snga bar phyi gsum gyi skor [The Tradition of Pha Dam-pa
Sangs-rgyas: A Treasured Collection of His Teachings Transmitted by Thugs-sras-Kun-dga’], ed. with
an English introduction by Barbara Nimri Aziz [Thimphu, Bhutan: Druk Sherik Parkhang, 1979]).
in China, in order to convert the people and establish Buddhism in Tibet.28 This is
significant as it was the emperor Khri srong lde btsan who built Tibet’s first
monastery and declared Buddhism the Tibetan state religion. The implication is
that these important steps toward establishing Buddhism in Tibet were the direct
result of Mañjuśrī’s activities. Khri srong lde btsan himself came to be considered
an emanation of Mañjuśrī, indicated by Mañjuśrī’s identifying implements, the
book and sword, at his shoulders (Cat. 30).29
Pha dam pa
One of the first historical figures who
may have directly linked Tibet and Wutai
shan was the South Indian adept Pha dam
pa sangs rgyas (Padangba Sangjie, 帕當
巴桑结, d. 1117; Fig. 10), founder of the
Pacification of Suffering tradition, who
was said to have traveled in China and
lived on Wutai shan for approximately
twelve years from about 1086 to 1097,
before returning to Tibet to found a
monastery.30 Little is recorded about Pha
dam pa’s life in China, though his trip to
Wutai shan is mentioned in some of the
earliest available historical sources on his
Figure 10. Pha dam pa sangs rgyas. Tibet; c.

13th century. Copper alloy; Height: 25 cm
(9.75" h. x 7.25" w. x 5.625" d.). Nyingjei Lam
Collection. L2005.9.51 (HAR68480).
28
Nyang ral nyi ma ’od zer, Bka’ thang zangs gling ma (Chengdu: Sichuan minzu chubanshe, 1989),
32-33. On the author Nyi ma ’od zer, who was himself considered an incarnation of the “Dharma King”
Khri srong lde btsan, see: Dudjom Rinpoché, Nyingma School, 755-59. On the writings of Nyi ma ’od
zer, see Dan Martin, Tibetan Histories: A Bibliography of Tibetan-Language Historical Works (London:
Serindia, 1997), 30-32.
29
Within this context Nyang ral nyi ma ’od zer refers to Khri srong lde btsan as “an emanation of
Mañjuśrī”: ’phags pa ’jam dpal gyi sprul pa rgyal po khri srong lde’u btsan/ ( Nyi ma ’od zer, Bka’
thang zangs gling ma, 32).
30
According to Tibetan sources he traveled five times to Tibet, and on his fifth trip he traveled on
to China for twelve years where he was known as “Bodhidharma.” Later in 1097 he returned to Ding
ri where he founded a monastery, Ding ri glang ’khor (1097), and then passed away in 1117. On Pha
dam pa’s life and lineage see: George Roerich, Blue Annals (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1976), 867-78;
Jerome Edou, Machig Labdrön and the Foundations of Chöd (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications,
1996), 31-38; Chos kyi seng ge and Gang pa, Pha dam pa dang ma cig lab sgron gyi rnam thar
[Biographies of Dampa Sanggyé and Machik Lapdrön] (Xining: Qinghai Nationalities Publishing
House, November 1992). Also see Li Jicheng, “Zangchuan Fojiao,” 17.
tradition.31 According to a much later biography, in the pure realm of Five-Peak

Mountain Pha dam pa actually met the reverend Mañjuśrī and his retinue, and in
that realm (Wutai shan) he also achieved and demonstrated many signs of Spiritual
Attainment (siddhi) such as suppressing the sun, and the Chinese king together
with his ministers bowed respectfully. He also placed many Chinese worthy ones
on the sublime path and founded a chapel (gtsug lag khang, vihāra) there called
“Tsi tsu sa ra.”32 In the fifteenth-century Blue Annals (deb ther sngon po, written
ca. 1476-1478) one of Pha dam pa’s miraculous encounters with Mañjuśrī at Wutai
shan is recorded:
When Dam pa proceeded to China, he met on the road leading to Wutai shan
(rtse lnga’i ri) an old sage (ṛṣi), carrying a staff made of rattan wood (chu shing).
This was a manifestation of Mañjuśrī, who said to him: “In this country there are
many epidemics. At Vajrāsana (Bodhgaya, India) there exists a dhāraṇī of Vijaya
(rnam par rgyal ma). If you bring it to-day, the epidemics in this country will
disappear.” Dam pa inquired: “Vajrāsana is far off. From where could I get it
today?” The sage replied: “Inside a certain cavity in a rock (brag khung [cave])
there is a hole (bug pa). Go there and bring it here.” Dam pa went toward this
cavity, and within an instant was transported to Vajrāsana, and back. Having
obtained the dhāraṇī, he pacified the epidemics. After that he again met the
Venerable Mañjughoṣa (’jam dpal dbyangs). The picture depicting his journey
to Vajrāsana was drawn by Chinese (artists), and printed copies (of it) have found
their way to Tibet. Dam pa spent twelve years (in China), preached and propagated
the doctrines of the Zhi byed. It is said that (his) Meditative Lineage exists there
(in China). Some maintain even that Dam pa had died in China.33
Regardless of whether Pha dam pa’s visit to Wutai shan was also an imagined
projection back of later Tibetan interest in the sacred mountain, by the Qing period
these stories became an important part of Tibetan lore at Wutai shan. This is
31
In the earliest work devoted entirely to the history of the Pacification of Suffering, which dates to
the early thirteenth century, contained in the Zhi byed snga bar phyi gsum gyi skor, only brief mention
is made of Pha dam pa’s visit to Wutai shan (vol. 4, p. 325). I would like to thank Dan Martin for
bringing this to my attention, as well as the early thirteenth-century dating of the text.
32
tsi tsu sa ra zhes pa’i gtsug lag khang ’ga’ zhig bzhengs/. “Tsi tsu” appears to be a transliteration
from Chinese (possibly zi zu or zi zai?), and “sa ra” from the Sanskrit for temple. Alternatively “Tsi
tsu” could be a phonetic rendering of rtse btsugs, “established [on] the peak.” I can find no other
reference to this temple, and the most said even in Chinese secondary literature is that “He had a deep
influence on Wutaishan’s magnificent temple architecture” (Li Jicheng, “Zangchuan Fojiao,” 18) but
without further elaboration. This later elaboration can be found in: Chos kyi seng ge, Pha dam pa, 50.
A more detailed account of Pha dam pa’s activities on Wutai shan, including the following story in the
Blue Annals, can be found in: Chos kyi seng ge, Pha dam pa, 49-51 and 55.
33
Roerich, Blue Annals, 911-12; Deb ther sngon po, 809-10. One other reference to Pha dam pa and
Wutai shan is found in the Blue Annals: “I will stay with a Jñāna-Dakini on Wutaishan of China”
(Roerich, Blue Annals, 898). Interestingly, despite the fact that it is stated that his meditative lineage
exists in China (Wutai shan?), there do not appear to be any references to Pha dam pa sangs rgyas
(Padangba Sangjie, 帕當巴桑结) in Chinese primary sources. He is commonly mentioned in modern
Chinese secondary literature as the first historical figure to link Tibet and Wutai shan, but without any
details. See for instance: Li Jicheng, “Zangchuan fojiao,” 17; Wang Lu, “Shengdi Qingliang shan zhi,”
Wutai shan yanjiu, no. 2 (1990): 22; Wen Jinyu, “Wutai shan zangchuan fojiao yu min zu tuan jie,”
Fojiao wen shi 2 (2003): 23.
expressed clearly on the panoramic map of Wutai shan (Cat. 1) in which Pha dam
pa is depicted sitting in a cave (Fig. 11; Fig. 4, no. 13) holding a staff, not an object
usually part of his iconography (Fig. 12), and likely a reference to his encounter
with the sage carrying a staff in this story.34 The cave he sits in is labeled in both
Tibetan and Chinese as “India Cave” (rgya gar phug, Xitian Dong, 西天洞) on
the map, a reference to this story of Pha dam pa’s cave serving as a magical portal
to India. It is said that today’s visitors can still see a record of Mañjuśrī meeting
Pha dam pa at Wutai shan and a stone door panel (rdo sgo glegs) of Pha dam pa’s
meditation cave there.35
Figure 11. Pha dam pa depicted sitting in a

cave. 1846 Wutai shan map detail (Cat. 1; Fig.
4, no. 13).
Figure 12. Pha dam pa. Detail from Ma gcig

lab sgron (1055-1153). Tibet; 19th century .
Pigments on cloth; 22" h. x 16" w. Rubin
Museum of Art . F1998.4.11 (HAR 619).
This story of Pha dam pa’s meeting with Mañjuśrī disguised as a sage follows
typical Chinese narrative formulas of encounters with Mañjuśrī on Wutai shan. In
particular, the details of this tale are almost identical to the famous story of another
monk from the west, Buddhapālita (Fotuo Poli, 佛陀波利) of Kashmir, who visited
Wutai shan about four centuries earlier in 676, which is prominently illustrated on
the famous mural of Wutai shan in Cave 61 at Dunhuang (Fig. 8), that predates
Pha dam pa’s visit by more than a century.36 This conflation of miraculous stories
34
This staff is part of the woodblock, and can be seen on other printings, such as the one in Helsinki.
However the color of the staff is not consistent between block prints. See for instance Harry Halén,
Mirrors of the Void: Buddhist Art in the National Museum of Finland: 63 Sino-Mongolian Thangkas
from the Wutai Shan Workshops, a Panoramic Map of the Wutai Mountains and Objects of Diverse
Origin (Helsinki: National Board of Antiquities, 1987), 147. Note an old bearded sage rides by on a
tiger – probably an emanation of Mañjuśrī.
35
Chos kyi seng ge, Pha dam pa, 51.
36
Cave 61 is thought to date to 947-957. See Wong, “A Reassessment,” 29 and 37. Also see: Yanyi,
Guang Qingliang zhuan [Extended History] (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin chubanshe: Shanxi sheng xin
that collapse time is common to both Wutai shan narratives and images, and it may
be that this story was added to Pha dam pa’s biography later as Wutai shan grew
in the Tibetan imagination.37 Similarly, the Chinese printed images referred to in
the Blue Annals as circulating in Tibet may, in fact, illustrate any one of a number
of such well-known Chinese stories, such as that of the aforementioned
Buddhapālita (Fig. 13).38 Such stories reveal the timeless nature of these miracles,
which are at once linked to specific prominent historical figures to provide an air
of authenticity and at the same time infinitely repeatable, imbuing a limitless power
to the site. Thus the visual inscription of these miracles on the map is not only an
immediately accessible record of their occurrence in the past but also holds out
the promise of such an experience for the viewer as a worthy pilgrim in the present.
Mongol Yuan (元) Empire

It was the incorporation of Tibet and then
China into the larger Mongol empire in
the mid-thirteenth century (Fig. 14) that
fostered the establishment of a regular
Tibetan presence on Wutai shan, for
which we have reliable documentation.
Wutai shan is located only two-hundred
miles southwest of (the imperial court in)
Beijing (北京), which became the
political center of China under Mongol
Figure 13. Buddhapālita (Fotuo Poli, 佛陀波 rule in the thirteenth century. While the
利) meets Mañjuśrī. Detail from The Bodhisattva Mongol Empire was known for a policy
Wensu (Manjusri) on Wutaisan. China; Mogao
Caves, Dunhuang, Gansu Province; 975-1025. of religious tolerance among the peoples
Silk; 164 cm. high x 107.5 cm. wide. Musée it conquered and for generous patronage
national des Arts asiatiques – Guimet, Pelliot across a broad spectrum of faiths, it was
Collection, EO 3588. the Tibetan tradition that Qubilai Khan
(Hubilie, 忽必烈, 1215-1294; Fig. 15) singled out among all the faiths competing
for imperial attention as a prominent religion of his court, and Qubilai Khan himself
hua shu dian fa xing, 1989), 1111; and Edwin Reishauer, Ennin’s Diary: The Record of a Pilgrimage
to China in Search of the Law (New York, NY: Ronald Press Co., 1955), 246-47. The story of
Buddhapālita’s encounter with Mañjuśrī is recorded in the gazetteer under the entry for the Vajra Cave
(Jingang ku, 金剛窟, rdo rje phug; Fig. 4, no. 58).
37
Evidence suggests that this story of Pha dam pa’s encounter with Mañjuśrī is a later addition. This
narrative does not appear in his earlier biographies, but only seems to appear in later sources, such as
the Blue Annals (fifteenth century). Another example of such a conflation is the story of a Tang/Song
dynasty official who mistakes Mañjuśrī for a lecherous monk and shoots him with an arrow. In later
telling the official becomes the Kangxi emperor. See Chou, “Ineffable Paths,” 124.
38
One such example of an illustration of similar stories is a Chinese stone relief carving dating to
the late ninth-tenth century which is inscribed in a suitably generic manor: “A foreign monk from the
western country came to pay tribute to the Buddha. Mañjuśrī manifested himself in the body of an old
man.” Wong, “A Reassessment,” 48, figure 24.
came to be seen as an imperial emanation of Mañjuśrī.39 Patronage of several

Tibetan traditions was divided up among the Mongol princes and their monasteries
flourished as never before.
Figure 14. Map, Mongol empire in the

mid-thirteenth century (ca 1249-50). (After
Atwood, p. 366.)
Figure 15. Qubilai Khan. Album Leaf; ink and

color on silk; 23 3/8 x 18 ½ in. National Palace
Museum, Taiwan. (After Possessing the Past, p.
264, plate 136).
On account of this growing interest in Tantric Buddhism among the Mongol

elite many Tibetan bla mas (guru) started visiting the Mongol court, and when
they did so they also visited Wutai shan. It was during the Mongol period that a
number of prominent Tibetan historical figures traveled to Wutai shan and
contributed to the popularity of the sacred mountain in Tibet. According to Tibetan
tradition, Sa skya paṇḍita Kun dga’ rgyal mtshan (1182-1251; Cat. 25 & Cat. 26),
who was (later?) seen as a Tibetan emanation of Mañjuśrī on Earth (one of the
“Three Mañjuśrī of Tibet”), was one of the most influential thirteenth-century
Tibetan figures said to have visited Wutai shan.40 A local Tibetan history (dated
39
Christopher P. Atwood, “Validation by Holiness or Sovereignty: Religious Toleration as Political
Theology in the Mongol World Empire of the Thirteenth Century,” The International History Review
23, no. 2 (2004): 237-56.
40
However, early sources do not seem to mention this trip, and only attest to Sa skya paṇḍita going
as far as Liangzhou in Gansu Province (甘肃), where he died. For instance Sa skya paṇḍita is not
mentioned going to Wutai shan in the brief account of his travel to the Mongol empire the fifteenth
century Rgya bod yig tshang chen mo, where it records his death at Huanhua Monastery (ltog gi spag
ri, Huanhua si, 幻化寺) in Las stod (Liangzhou, 涼洲; Dpal ’byor bzang po, Rgya bod yig tshang chen
mo [Thim phu: Kunsang Topgyel and Mani Dorji, 1979], 15r-15v; [Chengdu: Sichuan minzu chubanshe,
1985], 324; Chinese translation, 179). The earliest dated source that I am aware of which mentions Sa
skya paṇḍita visiting Wutai shan is the early sixteenth century poetical telling of his life, the Sa paṇ
rtogs brjod bskal bzang legs lam, written in 1519, which only mentions that he went there and described
what he saw ( Sa paṇ rtogs brjod bskal bzang legs lam [Chengdu: Sichuan minzu chubanshe, 1985],
202-203.) Interestingly, the author of this sixteenth-century account mentions the biography of Sa skya
paṇḍita written by Sa paṇ’s personal physician Bi ji, which suggests that later sources like this one and
1884), describes another Wutai shan in miniature recreated in Dpa’ ri, complete
with five peaks, just south of Liangzhou (Gansu Province) where Sa skya paṇḍita
passed away. According to this account, Sa skya paṇḍita founded the monastery
Brag dgon mchog dga’ gling in 1246, and praised the site as comparable in beauty
to Wutai shan, and even described it as a branch of Wutai.41 This text also lists the
main images in the various chapels, including a wall painting depicting the
landscape of Wutai shan, drawing a direct visual connection between the ideal and
its surrogate.42
The historical record is more clear regarding Sa skya paṇḍita’s nephew Chos
rgyal ’phags pa blo gros rgyal mtshan (1235-1280), who spent years on Wutai shan
composing texts that eulogized Mañjuśrī and the mountain. Schaeffer demonstrates
that ’Phags pa’s poetry of Wutai shan was some of the most influential, such as
his one-hundred verse poem: “The Garland of Jewels: Praise to Mañjuśrī at
Five-Peak Mountain,” written in 1257.43 Chos rgyal ’phags pa (Fig. 5) later became
Qubilai Khan’s Imperial Preceptor (dishi, 帝師), the emperor’s chaplain and the
highest spiritual authority in the empire. In fact every succeeding Yuan emperor
appointed a Tibetan to this supreme religious position in the Yuan government,
underscoring the importance with which Tibetan Buddhism was held at the Mongol
court.
Many other important Tibetan clerics stayed on Wutai shan in the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries for protracted time periods, such as ’Phags pa’s disciple
and an influential tantric ritual specialist to Qubilai’s court, Sga a gnyan dam pa
kun dga’ grags (Danba, 膽巴, 1230-1303), who lived on Wutai shan for close to
ten years. Dam pa was appointed abbot of Temple of Longevity and Tranquility
(Shouning si, 壽寧寺, rtag brtan bde chen gling; Fig. 4, no. 72), raising the status
of that monastery and making it what many consider to be the first Tibetan Buddhist
the Sa skya’i gdung rabs were in part based on contemporary thirteenth-century sources now lost to
us, and may not simply be later embellishments (I would like to thank Pema Bhum for bringing this to
my attention).
41
Gdong drug snyems pa’i blo gros, Lan jus sde bzhi sogs kyi dkar chag (Gansu Province: Minzu
chubanshe, 1988), 59-73 (especially 62); Zhongguo ren min zheng zhi xie shang hui yi and Tianzhu
Zangzu Zizhixian wei yuan hui, eds., Tianzhu zangchuan fojiao si yuan gai kung (Tianzhu, 2000),
235-245 (especially 239). This site also has five peaks, just like Wutai shan, and fits into the larger
pattern of mirror/surrogate sites described above. Thanks to Gray Tuttle for sharing this information.
Could this surrogate site near Liangzhou, where Sa paṇ died, be the source for the tradition of Sa paṇ
visiting Wutai shan? Or is this comparison to the beauty of Wutai evidence that he had in fact visited
Wutai shan? The historicity of Sa paṇ’s visit to Five-Peak Mountain remains unresolved.
42
logs bris su ri wo rtse lnga’i gnas kyi bkod pa yod pa’i lha khang bcas lha khang gsar du bzhengs/.
See: Gdong drug snyems pa’i blo gros, Dkar chag, 64; and Zhongguo, Tianzhu Zangchuan Fojiao,
240.
43
In 1257 Chos rgyal ’phags pa wrote several important works while residing on Wutai shan; see
Kurtis Schaeffer, “Tibetan Poetry on Wutai Shan,” paper given at the “Wutai Shan and Qing Culture”
Conference at the Rubin Museum of Art, May 12-13, 2007. On ’Phags pa at Wutai shan see: Gao
Lintao, “Basiba yu Wutai shan,” Wutai shan yanjiu, no. 4 (2000): 25-26, 46; Zhou Zhuying, “Yuandai
Dishi Basiba yi guan ta,” Wutai shan yanjiu, no. 4 (2000): 27.
establishment on the mountain.44 He was also said to have founded temples at

Wutai shan himself.45 Dam pa was a key figure within Qubilai Khan’s court for
the military application and employment of tantric esoteric power in the service
of the Mongol imperium. It was his ritual interventions that were credited for
Mongol victories in several key battles, including the final fall of the Southern
Song (Nan Song, 南宋, 1127-1279), allowing for the conquering of all of China
and the very founding of the Yuan dynasty.46 Later, the same sculpture of the
protective deity Mahākāla (Da Heitian,
大黑天) that was made to be used in those
destructive rites, which had became a
potent symbol of both Qubilai’s rule and
the Yuan imperial lineage, was installed
at Wutai shan for worship.47 On the map
of Wutai shan there is, in fact, a site
labeled “Mgon po ri,” or “Mahākāla Hill”
(Fig. 16; Fig. 4, no. 49).
Visual records of such visits by
Tibetan hierarchs from this period can
also be found in Tibetan paintings. For
instance, the Third Karma pa Rang byung Figure 16. Mahākāla Hill. 1846 Wutai shan
map detail (Cat. 1).
rdo rje’s (1284-1339) visit to Wutai shan
in 1333/34 during his trip to the Mongol court is depicted in a later sixteenth-century
44
Li Jicheng, “Zangchuan fojiao,” 18; Liu Yao, et al., Wutai shan lüyou cidian (Beijing: Tuanjie
chubanshe, 1992), 227.
45
Gao Lintao, “Basiba,” 26. One of these temples may include Youguo Monastery (Youguo si, 佑
國寺, yul bsrung gling), founded in 1295. While Dam pa’s Tibetan biography has yet to be located (at
least one by Ngor mkhan chen sangs rgyas phun tshogs [1649-1705] is known to exist), several short
biographies exist in Chinese sources such as A Comprehensive Registry of the Successive Ages of the
Buddhas and the Patriarchs (Fozu lidai tongzai, 佛祖历代通載; written before 1340) and a shorter
biography found in the official Yuan imperial history, the Yuanshi (chapter 202). Dam pa’s biography
in A Comprehensive Registry of the Successive Ages of the Buddhas and the Patriarchs (chapter 22)
mentions him building temples on Wutai. In 1293 a temple was built on Wutai shan in his honor for
healing the emperor (Li Jicheng, “Zangchuan Fojiao,” 18).
46
On Dam pa see: Elliot Sperling, “Lama to the King of Hsia,” The Journal of the Tibet Society 7
(1987); Elliot Sperling, “Some Remarks on sGa A-gnyan dam-pa and the Origins of the Hor-pa Lineage
of the dKar-mdzes Region,” in Tibetan History and Language: Studies Dedicated to Uray Geza on His
Seventieth Birthday, ed. Ernst Steinkellner (Wien: Arbeitskreis fur Tibetische und Buddhistische
Studien, Universitat Wien, 1991), 455-65; Elliot Sperling, “Rtsa-mi Lo-tsa-ba Sang-rgyas Grags-pa
and the Tangut Background to Early Mongol-Tibetan Relations,” in Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of
the 6th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies Fagernes 1992 (Oslo: Brill, 1994),
801-24; and Herbert Franke, “Tan-pa, A Tibetan Lama at the Court of the Great Khans,” in Orientali
Venetiana I, edited by Merio Sabatini (Firenze, Italy: Leo S. Olschki, 1984), 157-80.
47
What is described as “’Phags pa’s” one thousand (jin, 斤) catty bronze sculpture of Mahākāla on
Wutai shan is mentioned in Wen Jinyu, “Wutaishan Zangchuan Fojiao,” 23. Four centuries later when
the Manchus declared themselves the rightful inheritors of the Yuan legacy they installed this same
statue of the protective deity Mahākāla in the Manchu imperial shrine at Mukden in 1635. The 1638
dedicatory inscription reads: “’Phags pa bla ma had cast the golden image of Gur Mahākāla made the
statue an offering at Wutaishan...” Grupper, The Manchu Imperial Cult, 76, fn. 19.
biographical painting (Fig.17).48 This painting is one of a set of paintings illustrating

“The Third Karma pa with Episodes from His Life.” Amid the six episodes depicted
from the master’s life in this painting is his meeting with the Yuan emperor in
1332 at lower right and his pilgrimage the following year to Wutai shan at lower
left.49 The landscape of Wutai shan’s five peaks are prominently displayed in
different colors, dominated by an emanation or vision of Mañjuśrī on his blue lion,
which is associated with Wutai shan’s central peak, at center.
It was also during Qubilai’s reign that
the Great White Stūpa (Fig. 4, no. 40),
which became the icon of Wutai shan,
was built in 1301 by ’Phags pa’s protégé,
the Nepalese artist Anige (阿尼哥,
1244-1278/1306), who had become head
of the Mongol imperial atelier.50 This
stūpa is a monumental Himalayan-style
architectural landmark, which contrasts
with the Chinese temple architecture it
towers over (Fig. 18). It is believed to
contain one of the miraculously created
Buddha relic stūpas of the Indian emperor
Aśoka, the archetypal model of the ideal
Indian Buddhist sacral ruler (cakravartin).
Figure 17. The Third Karma pa Rang byung rdo This reliquary on Wutai shan closely
rje’s visit to Wutai shan. Detail of “The Third
resembles another Great White Stūpa
Karmapa with episodes from his life.” Ca. late
16th century. 29 ½ x 17 7/8 in. (75 x 45.5 cm). dedicated to Mañjuśrī, also built by
The Hahn Cultural Foundation Collection. Anige, in Beijing (Fig. 19) twenty-two
Literature: K. Tanaka 1999, vol. 2, no. 47. (After years earlier at the founding of the Yuan
Jackson 2009, Fig. 5.5, p. 93).
dynasty in 1279, which was a symbol of
Mongol imperial authority.51 The Nepalese Anige was involved in many other
48
“The Third Karma pa with Episodes from his Life,” ca. late sixteenth century (75 x 45.5 cm.),
Hahn Cultural Foundation. Tanaka Kimiaki, ed., Art of Thangka from Hahn Kwang-ho Collection, vol.
2 (Seoul: Hahn Foundation for Museum, 1999), 114-15, no. 47. On this painting also see David Jackson,
Patron & Painter: Situ Panchen and the Revival of the Encampment Style (New York, NY: Rubin
Museum of Art, 2009), 160.
49
This was probably Toghon Temür (Wenzong, 文宗, r. 1328/9-1332), great grandson of Qubilai
Khan. The Mongol emperor Toghon Temür is depicted in a beautiful contemporary cut silk appliqué
(kesi, 缂丝) thang ka, a monumental sized Yamantaka maṇḍala in the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
closely dateable to circa 1328-1329. Interestingly this deity is also an emanation of Mañjuśrī.
50
Gao Lintao, “Basiba,” 26. Anige was first brought from Nepal to Tibet for a Mongol imperial
commission to construct a reliquary stūpa for Sa skya paṇḍita in 1260, and so impressed ’Phags pa that
he recommended Anige for service to Qubilai Khan. Anige rose to Supervisor-in-Chief of All Artisans
at the Mongol court in 1273, and as the imperial construction apparatus was expanded Anige’s status
only rose (on Anige’s life, see Jing Anning, “The Portraits of Khubilai Khan and Chabi by Anige
(1245-1306), a Nepali Artist at the Yuan Court,” Artibus Asiae 54, no. 1/2 [1994]: 40-86).
51
The Manchus also built a Great White Stūpa in Beijing (Beihai Gongyuan, 北海公园) dedicated
to Mañjuśrī’s powerful tantric form, Vajrabhairava (Daweide Jingang, 大威德金刚). See Herbert
Franke, “Consecration of the ‘White Stupa’ in 1279,” Asia Minor 7, no. 1 (1994): 155-183.
Mongol court construction projects on Wutai shan, such as Southern Mountain

Temple (Nanshan si, 南山寺; Fig. 4, no. 51), which was founded by the Mongol
emperor Temür (Öljeitü Khan, r. 1294-1307) in 1297 to generate merit for the
emperor’s mother and is one of the most extravagant Mongol court temple
constructions ever recorded.52
Figure 18. White stūpa & Chinese temple

architecture. Photograph by Gray Tuttle.
Figure 19. Great White Stūpa in Beijing.

Photograph by author, 2008.
It is within this context of Mongol rule that the ancient rhetoric of conflating
imperial identity with Mañjuśrī was revived and broadened to transcend ethnic
proscriptions on rulership, where non-Chinese peoples could declare that they
carried heaven’s mandate to rule.53 This ideology can be found stated in Mongol
Yuan imperial inscriptions on a Buddhist monument, the Juyong Stūpa Gate (Juyong
guan, 居庸关; Fig. 20), built near Beijing in 1354 by the last Mongol emperor to
rule China, which states that Qubilai Khan (and by extension the Mongol line of
emperors), were emanations of a bodhisattva from the area of Wutai shan (Mañjuśrī)
divinely sanctioned to rule the empire:
52
Natalie Köhle, “Why Did the Kangxi Emperor Go to Wutai Shan?” (Master’s Thesis, Harvard
University, 2006), 73-119. New monasteries built in the Yuan include: Wansheng Youguo Monastery
(Wansheng youguo si, 万圣佑国寺), Dayuanzhao Temple (Dayuanzhao si, 大圆照寺), Pu’en Monastery
(Pu’en si, 普恩寺), Tiewa Temple (Tiewa si, 铁瓦寺, lha khang lcags thog can bya ba), Temple of
Longevity and Tranquility (Shouning si, 壽寧寺, rtag brtan bde chen gling), West Shouning Temple
(Xishouning si, 西寿宁寺), Protection of the Nation Monastery (Huguo si, 護國寺), Gold Lamp Temple
(Jindeng si, 金灯寺), Wanghai Temple (Wanghai si, 望海寺), Spring Water Temple (Wenquan si, 温
泉寺), Stone Stupa Temple (Shita si, 石塔寺), and Clear and Cool Monastery (Qingliang si, 清涼寺).
Wen Jinyu, “Wutai shan zangchuan fojiao,” 24.
53
Johan Elverskog, “The Mongolian Big Dipper Sūtra,” The Journal of the International Association
of Buddhist Studies 29, no.1 (2008): 87-123.
That blessed Bodhisattva the Emperor Sečen (Qubilai Khan), possessed of

vast wisdom...the wise one from the vicinity of Wutaishan... bodhisattvas destined
by heaven [to rule]. 54
Figure 20a. Juyong Stūpa Gate. Photograph by

author, 2003.
Figure 20. Juyong Stūpa Gate. Photograph by

author, 2003.
Tuttle questions the identification of the bodhisattva mentioned in this inscription

with Mañjuśrī, and calls into question if Qubilai Khan was regarded as an emanation
of Mañjuśrī in his own lifetime.55 However Qubilai does appear to be referred to
as Mañjuśrī in a few roughly contemporary Tibetan sources. One of the earliest
such references is found in the biography of U rgyan pa rin chen dpal
(1229/1230-1309) by his student Bsod nams ’od zer (b. thirteenth c.), in which U
rgyan pa not only remarks on this notion that Qubilai Khan was viewed by some
as an emanation of Mañjuśrī, but even challenges the legitimacy of this divine
claim:
54
David Farquhar, “Emperor as Bodhisattva in the Governance of the Ch’ing Empire,” Harvard
Journal of Asiatic Studies 38, no. 1 (1978): 12. The Juyong Stūpa Gate was constructed on the order
of the last Mongol emperor in 1345 and its construction was supervised by the Tibetan cleric Nam
mkha’ seng ge (fourteenth c.). Stūpa gates such as these were used to mark the cardinal directions in
delineating the sacred space of a city, like those found in the deity palace of a maṇḍala. This gate
marked the road that led from the north from Mongolia to the Yuan capital Dadu (大都; Beijing), and
a key military victory for the Mongols that gave them control of the North China plain.
55
The straightforward reading of the Juyong Stūpa Gate inscription by Farquhar has been challenged
by Tuttle, “Tibetan Buddhism at Wutai Shan,” 3-5, who points out that the earliest clear identification
of Qubilai with Mañjuśrī is in the sixteenth century. Still, for later generations this association was
strong, and important in understanding the development of the state Mañjuśrī cult at Wutai shan. On
the rest of the Juyong Stūpa Gate inscription see: Yael Bentor, “In Praise of Stupas: The Tibet Eulogy
at Chu-Yung-Kuan Reconsidered,” Indo-Iranian Journal 38 (1995): 31-54.
The precious lord (U rgyan pa) said: “Because that Qubilai Khan wields
immeasurable power, he has limitless glory. [Thus] there is a prophecy of the
appearance of a miraculous emanation of Mañjuśrī in the Mongolian royal line.
[However,] having thought about whether or not that is true, I feel that [if it were
true, Qubilai would] have subjugated (others) through the meditative concentration
(samādhi) of the Lord of Secrets, however there is oppression. If he is really a
miraculous emanation of Mañjuśrī, [it should be done] through his glory, not
oppression (force).”56
In other words if Qubilai Khan was really the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī incarnate
he would not need to use such brute tactics as violence and intimidation. This direct
quote suggests that not only was this idea of Qubilai as Mañjuśrī current in Qubilai’s
own time, but even contested. Extremely telling in this context is, directly after
making this comment U rgyan pa then travels to Wutai shan, and while his
biography describes what he saw and the initiations he gave there, no further
mention of Qubilai as Mañjuśrī is made, as if for U rgyan pa the matter is settled.
Another only slightly later fourteenth-century source, Tshal pa’s biography of his
father Smon lam rdo rje (1284-1346/7), mater-of-factly characterizes Qubilai as a
wondrous manifestation of Mañjuśrī.57 While there maybe some question as to
whether or not this association between Qubilai Khan and Mañjuśrī was accepted
in his own lifetime, it became firmly established in later centuries and became a
touchstone of later imperial authority. Thus Wutai shan became increasingly
important within the Buddhist cosmology of China and Inner Asia as a locus of
both religious and temporal power, even a source of political legitimation.
56
rje rin po che’i zhal nas/ se chen rgyal po de bsags pa tshad med pa mnga’ bas/ zil dpag tu med
pa ’dug hor gyi rgyal rgyud la/ ’jam dpal gyi sprul pa ’byon par lung bstan pa de/ ’di yin nam m yin
snyam nas/ gsang ba’i bdag po’i ting nge ’dzin gyis mnan pas/ non gyi ’dug ’jam dpal gyi sprul pa yin
na zil gyis mi non gsungs//. Bsod nams ’od zer, Grub chen u rgyan pa’i rnam par thar pa byin brlabs
kyi chu rgyun (Gangtok, 1976), 174; and Rta mgrin tshe dbang, ed. (Lhasa, 1997), 242. While the
language is somewhat softer in the Gangtok edition (using yod pa instead of ’dug), the content is the
same for both texts.
57
Per Sørensen, Guntram Hazod, and Tsering Gyalbo, Rulers on the Celestial Plain: Ecclesiastic
and Secular Hegemony in Medieval Tibet. A Study of Tshal Gung thang, vol. 2 (Wien: Verlag der
Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2007), 5b. Both these early references to Qubilai
Khan as an emanation of Mañjuśrī were identified by Leonard van der Kuijp in “The Tibetan Expression
‘bod wooden door’ (bod shing sgo) and Its Probable Mongol Antecedent,” in Shen Weirong, ed., Wang
Yao Festschrift (Beijing: Science Press 3, 2010), note 89. I would like to thank Professor van der Kuijp
for sharing his manuscript before it was published.
Chinese Ming (明) Dynasty

The conflation of the emperor with the
deity Mañjuśrī may have subsided when
Mongol rule in China was overthrown,
and the Chinese established the native
Ming dynasty (明, 1368-1644), and
Tibetan Buddhism was not as prominent
among the imperial elite; nonetheless,
patronage of Tibetan Buddhism continued
among the Chinese emperors and their
court. Several Chinese Ming monarchs
such as the Yongle (永樂, r.1403-1424)
and Zhengde emperors were especially
known for their devotion to Tibetan
Buddhism, much to the dismay of their
Confucian advisers, who worked hard to
restore Chinese orthodox culture and
social values in the wake of Mongol
rule.58 This imperial Chinese patronage
of Tibetan Buddhism during the Ming
period is especially notable at Wutai shan,
seen in the renovation and expansion of
Clear Understanding Monastery
Figure 21. Fifth Karma pa de bzhin gshes pa
(1384-1415). Ca. late 18th–early 19th century.
(Xiantong si, 顯通寺, mngon par gsal
39 3/8 x 23 5/8 in. (100 x 60 cm). (After Pal ba’i lha khang; Fig. 4, no. 65) by the
1984, Plate 92). Yongle emperor in 1406 for the visit of
a high Tibetan cleric, the Fifth Karma pa (1384-1415), as part of his trip to visit
58
The Yongle emperor was the first Ming sovereign to establish significant ties with Tibetan patriarchs,
and very recently there has been some acceptance that he was probably a believer in Tibetan Buddhism
(see for instance James Watt and Denise Patry Leidy, Defining Yongle: Imperial Art in the Fifteenth-
Century China [New York: The Metropolitan Museum, 2005]). The Zhengde Eperor was an enthusiastic
patron of Tibetan Buddhism who took his zeal to a level few had dared. Not only did he study Tibetan
Buddhist religious practice, but he also studied the Tibetan language. Wuzong (武宗, rin chen dpal
ldan, r. 1506-1521) even went so far as to style himself an emanation of the Seventh Karma pa (chos
grags rgya mtsho, 1454-1506), and adopted the Tibetan name Rin chen dpal ldan (Elliot Sperling,
unpublished paper presented at Fourth Seminar of the International Association of Tibetan studies,
1985). He built new temples within the Forbidden City (Zijing Cheng, 紫禁城), kept many Tibetan
monks around him and even wore monk’s robes at court. This horrified the Confucians, who had to
compete with the monks for the emperor’s ear. Much of this is omitted from the official accounts of
his reign, which simply say that he was an ineffectual ruler “not interested in culture.” Testament to
some of Zhengde’s religious interests are found in the form of an invitation letter sent in 1515 to the
Eighth Karma pa (mi bskyod rdo rje, 1507-1554) preserved at Mtshur phu Monastery, and a detailed
Tibetan account of the invitation mission in the Mkhas pa’i dga’ ston (See Hugh E. Richardson, “The
Karma-pa Sect: A Historical Note. Part I,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1958: 139-64 and “The
Karma-pa Sect: A Historical Note. Part II, Appendixes A, B, C,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society
1959: 1-18).
the Chinese imperial court (Fig. 21).59 Later the emperor sent a eunuch of the
imperial court to have an image of the Karma pa made and installed at Xiantong
si,60 (Fig. 22) which became a center for the practice of both Chinese and Tibetan
Buddhism at Wutai shan and can be seen as emblematic of Wutai shan as a unique
site for the confluence of these traditions. The neighboring Great White Stūpa (Fig.
18; Fig. 4, no. 40) was also rebuilt in 1407 with donations made on behalf of the
Fifth Karma pa during his stay on the mountain.61
Figure 22a. Clear Understanding Monastery

Figure 22. Clear Understanding Monastery (Xiantong si). Photograph by Gray Tuttle.
(Xiantong si). Photograph by Gray Tuttle.
Later, in 1414, Tsong kha pa’s (Zongkaba, 宗喀巴) famous disciple Shākya ye
shes also stayed at Xiantong si, as well as at Yuanzhao si (圓照寺, Kun tu khyab
pa’i lha khang; founded 1309; Fig. 23; Fig. 4, no. 66).62 Shākya ye shes (Fig. 6)
59
Köhle, “Why Did the Kangxi Emperor Go to Wutai Shan?” 79; Hoong Teik Toh, “Tibetan
Buddhism in Ming China” (PhD diss., Harvard University, 2004); Lcang skya rol pa’i rdo rje, Zhing
mchog ri bo dwangs bsil gyi gnas bshad dad pa’i padmo rgyas byed ngo mtshar nyi ma’i snang ba
(Xining: Mtsho sngon mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1993), 122-124. A short biography of the Fifth Karma
pa can be found in the Five-Peak Mountain gazetteer by Zhencheng (1546-1617), Qingliang shan zhi
[Record of Clear and Cool Mountain] (Yangzhou: Jiangsu Guangling guji keyin she, 1993 [1596,
revised 1661]), 82.
60
Zhencheng (1546-1617), Qingliang shan zhi, 82; Lcang skya rol pa’i rdo rje, Zhing mchog ri bo
dwangs bsil, 126.
61
The Great White Stūpa was rebuilt in 1567 by the Chinese empress dowager, and repeatedly in
the Qing period by the Mongols (in 1703, 1887, 1895, 1905).
62
Shākya ye shes also renovated the Temple of Longevity and Tranquility (Shouning si, 壽寧寺,
rtag brtan bde chen gling; Fig. 4, no. 72) while on Wutai shan. Shākya ye shes was a personal attendant
to Tsong kha pa, the founder of Se ra (Sela, 色拉) Monastery, and the third of three main Tibetan
patriarchs received by the Yongle emperor. A short biography of Shākya ye shes can be found in the
Wutai shan gazetteer by Zhencheng (1546-1617), Qingliang shan zhi, 83. A brief account of Shākya
ye shes’s dealings with the Ming court can be found in a history of Se ra Monastery contained within
Phur lcog ngag dbang byams pa, Grwa sa chen po bzhi dang rgyud pa stod smad chags tshul pad dkar
’phreng bo (Lha sa: Tibetan Peoples Publishing House, 1989), 50-58. For more information on Shākya
ye shes and the court, see Elliot Sperling, “The 1413 Ming Embassy to Tsong-kha-pa and the Arrival
of Byams-chen chos-rje Sha-kya ye-shes at the Ming Court,” Journal of the Tibet Society 2 (1982):
105-108 and Sperling, “Early Ming Policy toward Tibet,” 146-55; Huang Hao, Zai Beijing de Zangzu
wenwu (Beijing: Minzu chubanshe, 1993), 32-33; Heather Karmay, Early Sino-Tibetan Art (Warminster:
Aris & Phillips, 1975), 80-82; Cha har dge bshes blo bzang tshul khrims, Rje thams cad mkhyen pa
tsong kha pa chen po’i rnam thar go sla bar brjod pa bde legs kun gyi ’byung gnas, in Blo bzang tshul
khrims cha har dge bshes kyi gsung ’bum, vol. kha (New Delhi: 1971); and Tshe mchog gling yongs
’dzin ye shes rgyal mtshan, Byang chub lam gyi rim pa’i bla ma brgyud pa’i rnam par thar pa rgyal
btsan mdzes pa’i rgyan mchog phul byung nor bu’i phreng ba (New Delhi: 1970).
lived on Wutai shan for four years and is credited with building five or six temples
there and developing the Dge lugs church in both Chinese and Mongolian areas.63
Not long afterward, in 1426, the Chinese Xuande (宣德, r. 1426-1435) emperor
officially designated Yuanzhao si’s abbot the manager of Chinese and Tibetan
Buddhist affairs on the mountain, effectively making this monastery the first Dge
lugs temple in China.64 While literary evidence suggests that Tibetan oversight of
major institutions at Wutai shan, like Xiantong si and Yuanzhao si, had already
begun to appear in the fifteenth century under the Chinese in the Ming period, it
was under the Manchus that this practice was formally established as imperial
court policy in the seventeenth century.65
Figure 24. “Iron Bridge Man” Thang stong

rgyal po. Tibet; second half of the 15th century.
Copper alloy with pigment. Nyingjei Lam
Figure 23. Complete Illumination Monastery Collection. L2005.9.63 (HAR 68496).
(Yuanzhao si). Photograph by Gray Tuttle.
During this period a famous Tibetan cultural hero, the “Iron Bridge Man” (lcags
zam pa thang stong rgyal po, 1361?-1485; Fig. 24) also went to Wutai shan, where
he gave a reading transmission of the Litany of the Names of Mañjuśrī (mañjuśrī
63
According to Shākya ye shes’s biography in the history of Se ra Monastery by Phur lcog ngag
dbang byams pa (Phur lcog ngag dbang byams pa, Grwa sa chen po bzhi, 50-51), because Shākya ye
shes’s had cured the emperor from a serious illness “the six great monasteries of Wutai shan…were
founded, and in all of those places he spread the practice of the Dge lugs order.” Some Chinese sources
say five temples, while others say six. Li Jicheng, “Zangchuan Fojiao,” 18; Zhao Hong, “Huangjiao
zai Wutai shan de chuanbo,” Wutai shan yanjiu, no. 2 (1988): 17.
64
Zheng Lin, “Yuanzhao si fojiao jian shi,” Wutai shan yanjiu, no. 1 (1997): 21; Tuttle, “Tibetan
Buddhism at Ri bo rtse lnga,” 17. Yuanzhao si was later associated with the Chinese master Qinghai
(1922-90) who was a key figure in the recent revival of Tibetan Buddhism among the Chinese at Mount
Wutai. See: Tuttle, “Tibetan Buddhism at Ri bo rtse lnga.”
65
Köhle, “Why Did the Kangxi Emperor Go to Wutai Shan?” 80-83.
nāmasaṃgīti) to an eager congregation of (Chinese?) meditators.66 Thang stong

rgyal po stayed on Wutai shan in meditation for eight months, during which time
the five forms of Mañjuśrī appeared to him in a series of visions and spoke a
prophecy instructing him to build geomantic focal points (often taking the form
of stūpas) to suppress the four elements, another activity for which Thang stong
rgyal po became famous.67 Thang stong rgyal po’s travels to Wutai shan are
mentioned in early biographical materials such as his own edicts (bka’ shog),
suggesting that this was not simply a later embellishment.68
Second Conversion of the Mongols

It is at this time in the late sixteenth century that the Mongols underwent a second
more deeply rooted conversion to Tibetan Buddhism. From this point on the
Mongols would play a key role in the politics of Tibet, Tibetan relations with
China, and imperial interest in Tibetan Buddhism into the modern period. Although
Tibetan Buddhism was important for the imperial elite, especially during the later
Yuan, when the Mongols returned to the steppe their connections with the dharma
waned. However, the Mongols did not give up their connections with Tibet entirely,
and one ambitious leader, Altan Khan (1507-1582), saw promoting Tibetan
Buddhism as a strategy to overcome the tradition of primogeniture and thereby
not only legitimate his power locally within Ordos, but also secure trade alliances
with the Ming court.69 To this end Altan Khan invited a number of Tibetan teachers,
66
See Cyrus Stearns, King of the Empty Plain: The Tibetan Iron-bridge Builder Tangtong Gyalpo
(Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2007), 316-20. Thang stong rgyal po was famous for building
fifty-eight iron chain-link suspension bridges throughout the Himalayas, hence his epithet “Iron Bridge
Man.” According to an inscription on the back of this sculpture in Fig. 24, the image was blessed by
Thang stong rgyal po, and thus likely a contemporary “portrait.” The inscription reads: “[This] image
of the siddha Thang stong rgyal po contains (blessed) hand-barley of the lord himself” (grub thob thang
stong rgyal po’i sku rje rang nyid gyi phyag nas bzhugs so/). This inscription is (miss-)translated as
“This is the image of the siddha Thangtong Gyalpo, by his own hand” and stating that he was himself
involved in the making of the image in David Weldon and Jane Casey Singer, The Sculptural Heritage
of Tibet: Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam Collection (London: Laurence King Publishing, 1999), 184.
Sculptures of Thang stong rgyal po said to have made by his own hands were kept in the Jo khang in
Lhasa. On Thang stong rgyal po as an artist see Stearns, King of the Empty Plain, 44-46.
67
Stearns, King of the Empty Plain, 319-20, and 557, fn. 865. Thang stong rgyal po is said to have
built one hundred and one stūpas.
68
Stearns, King of the Empty Plain, 5. The biography translated by Stearns was written considerably
after his life (1609). Thang stong rgyal po then went on to meet the Chinese emperor in Beijing, who
Stearns identifies as Yingzong (英宗, 1427-1464), emperor of both the Zhengtong (正统, 1436-1449)
and Tianshun (天顺, 1457-1464) reigns (Stearns, King of the Empty Plain, 557, fn. 867). However,
there is no confirmation of this in Chinese sources.
69
Another important factor that motivated Altan Khan to invite Tibetan masters was a much more
practical one: After the 1571 peace accord smallpox ran rampant due to the newly opened Sino-Mongol
markets, and Altan Khan was seeking a tantric ritual cure to suppress the epidemic. Thus neither the
reestablishment of the Tibet-Mongol connection or the Mongol conversion to the Dge lugs order was
far from inevitable, nor was the Third Dalai Lama, the only player in this process, as is often depicted
by later historians like the Fifth Dalai Lama. I would like to thank Johan Elverskog for this clarification.
See also Johan Elverskog, Our Great Qing: The Mongols, Buddhists and the State in Late Imperial
China (Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 2006), 107-108, 111-12. On the smallpox epidemic
see: Johan Elverskog, “Tibetocentrism, Religious Conversion and the Study of Mongolian Buddhism,”
among them a famous monk of the relatively new Dge lugs monastic order, Bsod
nams rgya mtsho (1543-1588), to proselytize among his people and was so
impressed with the monk’s wisdom that he gave him the title “Oceanic Guru”
(Dalai Lama, ta la’i bla ma). The next reincarnation of the Dalai Lama was then
recognized in the grandson of Altan Khan, a shrewd political move that bound the
Mongols closely to Dge lugs interests.
This second conversion of the Mongols was so thorough that Tibetan Buddhism
became part and parcel of their identity. This was a historical turning point in Inner
Asian politics that would have serious consequences for the following generations.
The Mongols became fiercely loyal to the Dge lugs order and were instrumental
in establishing the Dalai Lama’s political rule over Tibet. Tibetan Buddhism thus
became a cultural and political rallying point for the fractured Mongols as well as
other Inner Asian groups and once again an important factor in empire building.
Interestingly, as Elverskog observes, the last record of Chinese imperial patronage
of Tibetan Buddhism at Wutai shan was made in 1522, which corresponded with
the time of the second rise of the Mongols.70 As part of this strategy envisioning
a Buddhist reunification of Mongolia, the earliest Mongol source that clearly links
Qubilai Khan with Mañjuśrī, the White History (Chaghan Teüke), was
“rediscovered” and circulated by Altan Khan’s right-hand man, Khutugtai Secen
Khung-Taiji, and attributed to Qubilai Khan himself. However internal evidence
suggests that this text dates to the late sixteenth century, when Altan Khan and his
allies were embracing Tibetan Buddhism as part of their bid to reestablish the
former glory of the Mongol empire.71
Manchu Qing (清) Dynasty

In 1644 the Manchus, another nomadic people from the northeastern steppe, seized
power from the Chinese and founded the Qing dynasty (清, 1644-1911), and Tibetan
Buddhism was once again made one of the official religions of the empire. Under
the Manchus the visual language of Buddhist imperial rule was further refined and
the concepts of sacral legitimacy given a finer point, with a special focus on the
in The Mongolia-Tibet Interface: Opening New Research Terrains in Inner Asia, eds. Hildegaard
Diemberger and Uradyn Bulag (Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2007), 59-81.
70
This observation was made by Johan Elverskog at the “Wutaishan and Qing Culture” symposium
in reaction to David Robinson’s work on the Inner Asian ruling complex and its continuation into Ming,
which was then powerfully challenged once the Tibet connection was lost. See: David M. Robinson,
“Politics, Force and Ethnicity in Ming China: Mongols and the Abortive Coup of 1461,” Harvard
Journal of Asiatic Studies 59, no. 1 (June, 1999): 79-123.
71
According to Atwood, “Validation by Holiness or Sovereignty,” 82, despite Khutugtai Secen’s
claim, the text shows no connection in language or themes to real Yuan-era documents. Atwood
concludes that the history is likely a late sixteenth-century utopia, retrojected to Qubilai’s time,
envisioning Buddhist reunification of Mongolia. Thanks to professors Tuttle and Elverskog for bringing
this to my attention.
cult of Mañjuśrī. Therefore Wutai shan figured much more prominently in Qing
imperial ideology than in previous regimes.72
Manchus as Inheritors of the Mongol Legacy

Manchu interest in Tibetan Buddhism can be traced directly to Mongol patronage
in the thirteenth century. Specifically it was the patron-priest relationship between
Qubilai Khan and his Tibetan Imperial Preceptor ’Phags pa that was seen as a
powerful model worthy of emulation in the Manchu court of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries.73 Lacking the proper bloodlines to claim themselves as the
descendants of Qubilai Khan, the Manchu rulers used the Tibetan Buddhist
succession mechanism of reincarnation to declare themselves Qubilai Khan’s
spiritual inheritors. By promoting themselves as emanations of Mañjuśrī, the
Manchu emperors were essentially declaring themselves Qubilai Khan reborn.
Wutai shan as Mañjuśrī’s abode was thus at the heart of the Manchu court’s bid
for political legitimacy. This is especially significant as the incorporation of the
Mongols into the Qing dynasty was critical to the survival of the Manchu Empire,
and both the Chinggisid lineage (of Qubilai Khan) and Tibetan Buddhism were
powerful symbols in the Mongol political vocabulary of the seventeenth century.74
This was but one of several mutually reinforcing strategies aimed at various subject
and neighboring peoples in establishing and solidifying the Manchu’s multi-ethnic
72
As Mark Elliot reflected in his comments at the “Wutaishan and Qing Culture” symposium this
makes sense considering the way in which the Manchus came to power and exercised authority over
a great deal of Buddhist Inner Asia, which the Ming did not.
73
This is a bit of an oversimplification, as there was also a Chinese Ming-period link in this
transmission, Shākya ye shes (d. 1435), a fifteenth century Tibetan cleric who served as a preceptor to
the Chinese emperors Yongle, Xuande, and Zhengtong (正统, 1436-1449). Shākya ye shes’s role as
preceptor at the Chinese court was perceived as important enough that he was recognized by the
eighteenth century to be a reincarnation of the thirteenth-century Sa skya Imperial Preceptor ’Phags
pa, thus allowing the Dge lugs pa to usurp the Sa skya prerogative of serving the emperor. See Sperling,
“1413 Ming Embassy ,” 105-108; Elverskog, Our Great Qing.
74
The Chinggisid lineage refers to the lineal descendants of Chinggis Khan (ca. 1162-1227), founder
of the Mongol Empire. Descent from Chinggis Khan was for centuries a crucial factor in rulership
throughout Inner and Central Asia, and even a prerequisite for claiming the title “khan” (See James
Millward, Ruth Dunnell, Mark Elliot, and Philippe Foret, eds., New Qing Imperial History: The Making
of Inner Asian Empire at Qing Chengde [London: Routledge, 2004], 96). Both the inheritance to the
Chinggis legacy and patronage of Tibetan Buddhism on the Qubilai model were important to Mongolian
nation building. Ligdan Khan (Legs ldan, b. 1588, r. 1604-1634), the last emperor of the Northern Yuan
dynasty, aimed at centralizing Mongolian rule. As part of Ligdan’s bid to rebuild the Mongol state he
attempted to revive the old Mongol-Tibetan (Sa skya) alliance. In the colophon of the Mongolian
translation of the Tibetan tripitika (Bka’ ’gyur) he sponsored, he proclaimed himself Chinggis Khan.
He also installed in his capital the Mahākāla image associated with ’Phags pa and the founding of
Qubilai Khan’s empire (see above). Ligdan’s defeat in 1634/5 and the capture of the symbolically
significant Mahākāla sculpture was a crucial step in the early development of Manchu power. See
Atwood, “Validation by Holiness or Sovereignty,” 334-35. For more on the Mongol threat to the
Manchu Empire see: Samuel M. Grupper, The Manchu Imperial Cult of the Early Ch’ing Dynasty:
Texts and Studies on the Tantric Santuary of Mahakala at Mukden (PhD diss., Indiana University,
1979). Later, one of the greatest Manchu rulers, the Qianlong Emperor (乾隆, 1711-1799), cited their
close relationship with Tibetan Buddhism as an important factor in the submission of first the Khalkha
Mongols in 1691, and then the return of the Torghut (Kalmuk) Mongols in 1771 (Grupper, The Manchu
Imperial Cult, 94).
empire in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.75 The Manchu rulers, by

adopting certain personas, turned themselves into the representatives of the
respective cultures, whether Chinese or Mongol, Confucian or Buddhist,
legitimizing their position and appropriation of those cultural traditions by denying
their image as outsiders who gained possession of them through force.76
Divine Rite to Rule: Emperor as Mañjuśrī

In Mongol sources the Manchu connection to Mañjuśrī starts as early as the first
Qing emperor Hongtaiji’s (bog to rgyal po) reign (1626-1643), and shortly before
the Manchus completed their conquest of China, Hongtaiji changed their ethnonym
from Jurchen to “Manju” (manzu, 满族) in 1635. Thus, an etymology seems to
have been engineered to claim its source in the very name “Mañjuśrī.”77 This
language also plays into the much earlier
Tang indigenous China-Mañjuśrī
connection previously referred to.
However, it is the Kangxi Emperor (康
熙, 1662-1723) who first refers to himself
as Mañjuśrī in his preface to the officially
commissioned Mongolian translation of
the Tibetan Buddhist canon (1718-1720):
Then Mañjuśrī, the savior of all

living forms, [with the] intellect of all
the Buddhas, was transformed into
human form, and ascended the Fearless
Lion Throne of gold; and this was none
other than the sublime Emperor
Kangxi-Mañjuśrī who assisted and
brought joy to the entire vast world...78
Such divine projections went much Figure 25. Kangxi Emperor slaying a tiger. 1846
Wutai shan map detail.
further than previous Mongol imperial
Yuan dynasty claims in inscriptions on Buddhist monuments such as the
aforementioned fourteenth-century Juyong Stūpa Gate. The Kangxi emperor
75
On Manchu use of indigenous Mongolian political models see Elverskog, Our Great Qing.
76
On the Manchu emperors taking on various cultural guises see: Wu Hung, “Emperor’s Masquerade
– ‘Costume Portraits’ of Yongzheng and Qianlong,” Orientations 26, no. 7 (July/August 1995): 28; J.
Rawson, Regina Krahl, Alfreda Murck, and Evelyn Rowski, China: The Three Emperors 1622-1795
(London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2006), 248-51.
77
Wang Junzhong, Dong Ya Han Zang fojiao yanjiu (Taibei: Dong Da tushu gongsi, 2003), 80-134.
Before this the Manchus referred to themselves as the Jurchen and their empire as the Later Jin, after
the Jin dynasty (金, 1115-1234) of Inner Asia which conquered North China. Elverskog (“Wutai Shan
in the Mongol Literary Imaginaire ,” paper given at the “Wutai Shan and Qing Culture” Conference
at the Rubin Museum of Art, May 12-13, 2007) suggests that these models were originally taken from
Mongol traditions by the Manchus, and not pushed onto the Mongols by the Manchus, which explains
to some degree the Mongol receptivity and success of this program.
78
Farquhar, “Emperor as Bodhisattva,” 9.
personally visited Wutai shan five times, an extraordinary number for an emperor,
underscoring the close relationship between the new Manchu sovereigns and
China’s state protector, Mañjuśrī, who resided there.79 Within depictions of these
trips the figures of the Kangxi emperor and Mañjuśrī are subtly conflated, whereby
the act of the emperor slaying a tiger is equated with Mañjuśrī’s subjugation of
poisonous dragons in subduing the land (Fig. 25; Fig. 4, no. 64).80
Tibeto-Mongolian Control of Wutai shan

Under the Manchu Qing dynasty
Wutai shan was given more autonomy in
its affairs, functioning in a unique way
within the empire, and its Tibetan and
Mongolian clergy enjoyed a specially
privileged position.81 Shortly after the
Qing dynasty was founded the first forty
Mongol bla mas were sent to Wutai shan
in 1655, and the Kangxi emperor is said
to have converted ten Chinese Buddhist
monasteries into Tibetan and Mongolian
institutions in 1683 or 1705, providing
them with state financial support.82 The
Figure 26. Pusa ding Monastery. 1846 Wutai
position of head of all religious and
shan map detail. temporal affairs for both Tibetan and
Chinese Buddhist institutions on Wutai
shan was given to a Mongolian practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism, the “Jasagh
Lama” (Zasag/jasag, Zhasa, 扎萨克, dza sag bla ma) with his seat at Pusa ding
79
For an in-depth analysis of these visits see Köhle, “Why Did the Kangxi Emperor Go to Wutai
Shan?”
80
Chou, “Ineffable Paths,” 124; Chun Rong, “Cifu si,” Wutai shan yanjiu, no. 1 (1999): 22. This is
the most often reproduced scene from Kangxi’s Western Tour (Chou, “Ineffable Paths,” 124; and
Köhle, “Why Did the Kangxi Emperor Go to Wutai Shan?” 93).
81
Wutai shan was treated as a tributary territory within the Lifanyuan zili, wherein bla mas from
Beijing, Jehol (Inner Mongolia) and Wutai shan enjoyed a privileged position. Vladimir Uspensky,
“Legislation Relating to the Tibetan Buddhist Establishments on Wutai Shan during the Qing Dynasty,”
paper given at the “Wutai Shan and Qing Culture” Conference at the Rubin Museum of Art, May 12-13,
2007. This special territorial status of Wutai shan within the Qing Empire can also be seen in the
Thirteenth Dalai Lama’s trip to Wutai shan in 1908, where he was able to interact with western diplomats
in a way that he was not able to pursue previously as seen in Elliot Sperling, “The Thirteenth Dalai
Lama at Wutai Shan: Exile and Diplomacy,” Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies,
no. 6 (December 2011), http://www.thlib.org?tid=T5720.
82
The Kangxi emperor is generally attributed with converting ten Chinese monasteries to Tibetan
Buddhism either in 1683, after his first two tours, or alternately in 1705, shortly after his fourth tour
of the mountain. For instance see: Xiao Yu, “Pusading de fojiao lishi,” Wutai shan yanjiu, no. 1 (1996):
13. However as Köhle (“Why Did the Kangxi Emperor Go to Wutai Shan?” 77-78, fn. 14) points out,
none of the secondary literature that makes this statement cites a primary source, and that this process
of conversion was probably a more gradual process where the Chinese, Tibetan and Mongolian traditions
co-existed within these institutions.
Monastery (Fig. 26; Fig. 4, no. 14).83 As previously mentioned, Pusa ding Monastery
had been a focus of imperial patronage since the eighth century and was the
centerpiece of Qing imperial patronage on Wutai shan. As the administrative heart
of this hierarchy, it is depicted at the center of the woodblock map much larger
than the others, and its yellow-tiled rooftops, usually reserved for imperial palaces,
stamps the monastery with an imperial identity.84
The first of these imperially appointed overseers of Wutai shan, Ngag dbang
blo bzang (Awang Laozang, 阿王老藏, 1601-1687), commissioned one of the
objects in this exhibition (Cat. 13).85 In 1661 Ngag dbang blo bzang revised the
local gazetteer of Wutai shan, printed in 1887, shortly after the woodblock map in
this exhibition was made (Cat. 1). It is interesting to note in this context that the
map in the Rubin Museum of Art resembles the map contained in this gazetteer
(Fig. 9). Ngag dbang blo bzang also encouraged the writing of the first
Mongolian-language guide to Wutai shan in 1667, and the blocks were carved at
Ngag dbang blo bzang’s seat Pusa ding Monastery (Fig. 4, no. 14), where the
footprint woodblock (Cat. 13) was also carved and printed.86
The ethnic identity of Ngag dbang blo bzang is an interesting question, as he
is recorded in his official biography as having been born in Beijing in 1601, more
than forty years before the Chinese capital city fell to the Manchus. As Tuttle
convincingly shows below Ngawang was one of the Mongols who stayed behind
after the collapse of the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1368) to serve the Chinese Ming
dynasty (1368-1644),87 suggesting that Ngag dbang blo bzang was likely an ethnic
83
On the Mongolian title see Atwood, “Validation by Holiness or Sovereignty,” 617-18. For an
outline of this title and its Manchu invention, see: Uspensky, “Legislation Relating to the Tibetan
Buddhist Establishments.” From 1659 until 1937 Pusa ding Monastery was the seat of a succession of
twenty-three Jasagh Lamas: Laozang Danbei (老藏丹贝), Laozang Danba (老藏丹巴), Yuzeng Shucuo
(预增竖错), Dansheng Jiacuo (丹生嘉错), Laozang Queta (老藏缺塔), Zhangmu Yangdanzeng (章
木样丹增), Quepei Daji (缺培达计), Chenlai Da’Erlai (陈赖达尔来), Gailichen Pianer (改利陈片尔),
Geshou Quebei (格兽缺培), Lama Nima (喇嘛尼嘛), Zhangmu Yang (章木样), Zhaya (扎亚), Longsang
Danpian (罗桑旦片), Awang Qingba (阿旺庆巴), Zhangyang Mola (章样摩拉), Shaoba Chunzhu (少
巴春柱), Xiaba Quebei (降巴缺培), Awang Sangbu (阿旺桑布), Jiachan Sangbu (加禅桑布), Luosang
Basang (罗桑巴桑), Awang Yixi (阿旺益西). Zhao Peicheng, “Shitan Wutai shan zangchuan fojiao
yu jingangshenwu,” Yizhou Shifan Xueyuan xuebao 20, no. 4 (August 2004): 39. According to Zhao
the first six were imperially appointed from Protection of the Nation Monastery (Huguo si, 護國寺),
Chongguo Monastery (Chongguo si, 崇國寺) in Beijing, whereas subsequent appointments were made
by the Dalai Lama (Zhao Peicheng, “Shi tan Wutai shan zangchuan fojiao”). Huguo si (“Protection of
the Nation Monastery”) was a center for Tibetan Buddhism in Beijing in the Ming and Qing periods.
84
Interestingly, the other main imperially sponsored temple, Tailu Monastery (Tailu si, 臺麓寺),
headed by the “Da Lama” (da lama, 大喇嘛), appears tiny in the bottom right corner of the map (Fig.
4, no. 70). The colorings on other printings of the map, such as the one in Helsinki, plot the ten imperial
monasteries more carefully, giving them each yellow roves. See Chou, “Ineffable Paths,” 109.
85
On Ngag dbang blo bzang see: Toh, “Tibetan Buddhism in Ming China,” 229-37; Jie Lüe,
“Qingliang laoren Awang Laozang ta ming,” Wutai shan yanjiu, no. 1 (1996): 35-36; Cui Zhengsen,
“Qingliang laoren Awang Laozang,” Wutai shan yanjiu, no. 3 (1999): 27-30.
86
Farquhar, “Emperor as Bodhisattva,” 30. There is a possible error in the date of the colophon of
the Mongol edition, and may actually date to 1721.
87
Tuttle, “Tibetan Buddhism at Wutai Shan.” Ngag dbang blo bzang was originally from Höhhot,
now the capital of Inner Mongolia. On the Mongol use of the surname Jia (賈), see Farquhar, “Emperor
Mongol whose family had lived among the Chinese for several centuries.88 As both
the text on this object and his biography in the Five-Peak Mountain gazetteer
describe him as a bla ma (lama, 喇嘛), we know he was primarily identified as a
practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism.89 That the Manchu emperors would appoint a
Tibetan Buddhist to manage Chinese as well as Tibetan Buddhist affairs at Wutai
shan, when even at its height Tibetan and Mongolian monasteries (so-called “yellow
temples” [huangmiao, 黄庙]) were outnumbered by Chinese temples (Qingmiao,
青庙) by approximately four to one,90 suggests the prominent position of authority
that Tibetan Buddhism held at Wutai shan in particular and the Qing empire in
general.
Tuttle enumerates how this newly emphasized importance of Wutai shan in
Qing dynasty ideology is clearly reflected in literary production. Although none
of the Ming editions of the local gazetteer were state sponsored, all of the Qing
editions were, the prefaces now written by Tibetan Buddhists like Ngag dbang blo
bzang. The Manchus also heavily patronized Chinese Buddhist institutions at Wutai
shan, and is shown below by Tuttle this language of imperial Mañjuśrī may not
have been aimed solely at Tibetans and Mongols. Particularly telling is a passage
identified by Köhle in the forward to the 1701 edition to the Chinese gazetteer to
Wutai shan, the Record of Clear and Cool Mountain (Qingliang shan zhi) – a
widely disseminated Chinese-language document paid for by the Qing state –
as Bodhisattva,” 8, note 17, quoting David Robinson’s work on Ming military records. Also see Henry
Serruys, Sino-J̈ürc̈ed Relations during the Yung-Lo Period, 1403-1424 (Wiesbaden: Otto
Harrassowitz, 1955); “Remnants of Mongol Customs during the Early Ming,” Monumenta Serica 16
(1957): 137-90; “Mongols Ennobled During the Early Ming,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 22
(December 1959): 209-60; “A Manuscript Version of the Legend of the Mongol Ancestry of the Yongle
Emperor,” Analetica Mongolica 8 (1972); Sino-Mongol Relations during the Ming vol. 1-3 (Bruxelles:
Institut belge des hautes études chinoises, 1967; rpt. 1980); The Mongols in China during the Hung-wu
period, 1368-1398 (Bruxelles: Institut belge des hautes études chinoises, 1980); and The Mongols and
Ming China: Custom and History, ed. Francoise Aubin (London: Variorum Reprints, 1987).
88
It has also been suggested that he was ethnically Chinese (Toh, “Tibetan Buddhism in Ming China,”
231, fn. 3) or even a Manchu (Gao Lintao, “Huangjiao zai Wutai shan de chuanbo,” Cangsang 1-2
[2004]: 96). However, further supporting evidence that Ngag dbang blo bzang was a sinocized Mongol
is suggested by the fact that his own teacher was a Sinocized Mongol bla ma, Blo bzang bstan pa’i
rgyal mtshan (1632-1684), who had entered service under the Ming. See Köhle, “Why Did the Kangxi
Emperor Go to Wutai Shan?” M.A. Thesis, 14, fn. 23, citing the Zhencheng (1546-1617), Qingliang
shan zhi, juan 7, 24b.
89
His biography in the local gazetteer of Wutai shan, the Record of Clear and Cool Mountain
(Qingliang shan zhi), records that he became a monk at age ten, received ordination at age eighteen,
and investigated thoroughly and understood yoga of esoteric Buddhism (Yujia mifa, 瑜伽密法; 10岁
出家，18岁受具戒，究明瑜伽密法。). See Zhencheng, Qingliang shan zhi, 102-103.
90
According to a Chinese census taken in 1956 there were 124 temples and monasteries, ninety-nine
being Chinese Buddhist, and twenty-five Tibetan and Mongolian. It does not say how these affiliations
were designated, or how institutions that incorporated both traditions were counted. See Wang Xiangyun,
“ Wu t a i shan yu zangchuan fojiao,” Ts i n g h u a U n i v e r s i t y,
http://www.tsinghua.edu.cn/docsn/lsx/learning/Meeting/Complete/wangxiangyun.pdf, 6 [no longer
available].
which subtly refers to the Kangxi emperor as Mañjuśrī, and the language is couched
in such a way that suggests that it was directed at a Chinese Buddhist readership.91
This is a radical departure from previous thinking, which has always assumed
that the Manchu court’s rhetoric of the emperor as Mañjuśrī was only directed at
Inner Asian peoples such as Tibetans, Mongolians, and Manchus. However, when
the emperor’s former palace was set up as a Tibetan Buddhist temple in Beijing
and renamed Yonghe Palace (Yonghe gong, 雍和宫) in 1745, the biography of
the court chaplain Lcang skya rol pa’i rdo rje (Cat. 2) explained that this was to
serve the Mongol and Chinese communities.92 Based on this, together with records
of regulations for ethnic Chinese practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism, Tuttle suggests
that by the eighteenth century the practice of Tibetan Buddhism was encouraged
among certain strata of the elite.93
Art and Politics: Lcang skya rol pa’i rdo rje

Embodying Manchu interests in Tibetan Buddhism and Wutai shan was the highest
and most influential bla ma of Inner Asia and China in the eighteenth century, the
Lcang skya hu thog thu Rol pa’i rdo rje (Zhangjia Hutuketu Ruobi Duoji, 章嘉呼
图克图若必多吉, 1717-1786; Cat. 2), who served as the emperor’s personal
chaplain and played a leading role in recasting Wutai shan into a Tibetan Buddhist
site. While the Dalai Lamas were at the top of the Dge lugs pa hierarchy, the Lcang
skya Hutukhtus were closest to the imperial throne. They were placed in charge
of all Dge lugs affairs east of Tibet, putting Rol pa’i rdo rje on a par with the other
high Dge lugs pa incarnations: the Dalai Lama, Paṇ chen bla ma, and the Rje btsun
91
Tuttle, “Tibetan Buddhism at Wutai Shan.” This passage was first identified by Natalie Köhle in
her M. A. Thesis, “Why Did the Kangxi Emperor Go to Wutai Shan?” 25-31; and Köhle, “Why Did
the Kangxi Emperor Go to Wutai Shan?” 87.
92
This was the Yongzheng emperor’s (雍正, 1678-1735, r. 1722-1735) former palace. See Tu’u
bkwan chos kyi nyima, Lcang skya rol pa’i rdo rje’i rnam tar (Gansu Province: People’s Publishing
House, 1989), 220.
93
For more on Tibetan Buddhist temples in Beijing see: Susan Naquin and Chün-fang Yü, Pilgrims
and Sacred Sites in China (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1992), 341-45, 584-91. Note
that Naquin (Pilgrims and Sacred Sites in China, 341, 584) treats Tibetan Buddhism as a foreign religion,
comparing them to the Catholics, and like them were forbidden to proselytize among the Chinese, and
its spread to the Chinese lay community discouraged. Rather it was to foreigners like Mongol Bannerman,
Manchus, and (Manchu) court members that they ministered to. Nonetheless she counts fifty-three
Tibetan Buddhist temples in the greater Beijing area in the late eighteenth century.
dam pa hu thog thus of Mongolia. He is best known for the enormous translation
projects of the Mongolian and Manchu
canons, but his influence in the areas of
art and politics was more far reaching. He
helped craft Manchu policies regarding
Mongolia and Tibet, at times interceding
directly with the emperor over political
issues. In the realm of art Rol pa’i rdo rje
had a guiding hand in the formation of
the Sino-Tibetan imperial Buddhist style
of the Qing dynasty that would come to
symbolize Manchu rulership. These
works of art were carefully crafted during
Qianlong’s reign (1736-1795) in the
Chinese court, which put great emphasis
on the power of symbols, to bolster
Manchu legitimacy as successors to the
Yuan Empire.
From childhood the young Lcang skya
incarnation was educated with the
imperial princes, among them Kangxi’s
grandson, the future Qianlong emperor
(Fig. 27). Together they studied Buddhist
scripture as well as Chinese, Mongolian,
Figure 27. Portrait of the Qianlong emperor (r.
1736-1796) as the Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī. Manchu, and Tibetan. This kind of close
Mid-18th century. Emperor's face painted by contact between monk and emperor from
Giuseppe Castiglione (Lang Shining), (Italian, such an early age was unprecedented and
1688-1766). China; Qing dynasty; Qianlong allowed Rol pa’i rdo rje to take a leading
reign. Thang ka; ink and color on silk; H: 113.6
W: 64.3 cm. F re e r G a l l e r y, role at court and speak his monastic
Purchase--Anonymous donor and Museum order’s interests directly into the ear of
funds, F2000.4. the emperor. Rol pa’i rdo rje’s own
incarnation lineage was carefully crafted to reflect that the patron-priest relationship
between Qubilai and ’Phags pa was reborn, quite literally, in Qianlong and himself.94
In 1745 Rol pa’i rdo rje initiated Qianlong into the Buddhist rites of the divinely
anointed sovereign (cakravartin), as ’Phags pa did for Qubilai Khan centuries
before. Later, when Rol pa’i rdo rje translated ’Phags pa’s biography into Mongolian
in 1753, he drew a direct parallel between the two acts, ruminating that he and the
emperor had been connected through many lifetimes and states directly that Qubilai
was the predecessor of Qianlong in the Mañjuśrī incarnation lineage.95 The Qianlong
94
This included adjusting the Lcang skya rol pa’i rdo rje’s incarnation lineage to include both the
thirteenth century Sa skya Imperial Preceptor to Qubilai Khan, ’Phags pa, and the fifteenth-century
cleric to the Chinese Ming court, Shākya ye shes, thus allowing the Dge lugs pa to usurp the Sa skya
prerogative of serving the emperor.
95
E. Gene Smith, “Introduction,” in The Collected Works of Thu’u-bkwan blo-bzang-chos-kyi-nyi-ma
vol. 1, 1-12 and appendix I and II (Delhi: Ngawang Gelek Demo, 1969), 6. Qubilai is also clearly
emperor more than any other Manchu ruler realized the potential of patronizing
Tibetan Buddhism, as is evidenced by the volume of images produced by the
imperial workshops in the Tibetan style under his reign.96 The Qianlong emperor’s
own tomb, covered in Tibetan mantras, letters, and symbols (Fig. 28) is a graphic
expression of his deep seeded interest in the religion.97
Lcang skya rol pa’i rdo rje helped the
emperor craft a policy toward Tibet and
Mongolia that underscored Manchu
inheritance of Qubilai’s realm, both
politically and symbolically, through the
production of religious art, with a special
focus on Mañjuśrī. As part of this larger
campaign, Lcang skya rol pa’i rdo rje was
an instrumental figure in giving Wutai
shan a Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhist
identity, which is reflected so clearly on Figure 28. Tibetan mantras in Qianlong
the woodblock map (Cat. 1). Lcang skya emperor’s tomb. Photograph by Kristina
Dy-Liacco, 2003.
rol pa’i rdo rje spent thirty-six
consecutive summers from 1750 until his death in 1786 in meditative retreat on
Wutai shan at his seat there, Taming the Ocean Monastery (Zhenhai si, 鎮海寺,
rgya mtsho ’dul ba’i gling; Fig. 29; Fig. 4, no. 37).98 He had oversight of six temples
on Wutai shan and was particularly involved with the Pule yuan (普樂院, kun bde
tshal; Fig. 4, no. 22), another important site for the practice of Tibetan Buddhism
placed within Qianlong’s incarnation lineage written by the Sixth Paṇ chen bla ma. See Vladimir
Uspensky, “The Previous Incarnations of the Qianlong Emperor According to the Panchen Blo bzang
dpal ldan ye shes,” in Tibet, Past and Present: Tibetan Studies I, Proceedings of the Ninth Seminar of
the International Association for Tibetan Studies Leiden 2000, edited by Henk Blezer (Leiden: Brill,
2002), 221 and 225.
96
Patricia Berger, “Preserving the Nation: The Political Use of Tantric Art in China,” in Latter Days
of the Law: Images of Chinese Buddhism 850-1850, edited by Marsha Weidner (Spencer: Spencer
Museum of Art, 1994), 118.
97
For a discussion of the Qianlong emperor’s tomb, see: Francoise Wang-Toutain, “Qianlong’s
Funerary Rituals and Tibetan Buddhism: Preliminary Reports on the Investigation of Tibetan and Lantsa
Inscriptions in Qianlong’s Tomb,” in Studies in Sino-Tibetan Buddhist Art. Proceedings of the Second
International Conference on Tibetan Archaeology & Art, Beijing, September 3-6, 2004, edited by Xie
Jisheng, Shen Weirong, and Liao Yang (Beijing: China Tibetology Publishing House, 2006), 130-69.
98
Zhou Zhuying, “Zhenhai si de jian zhu yu cai su yi shu,” Wutai shan yanjiu, no. 4 (2003): 15-22.
First he resided at the Cave of Sudhana (Shancai dong, 善財洞, nor bzang sgrub phug; Fig. 4, no. 69),
Vajra Cave (Fig. 4, no. 58), and Pusa ding (Fig. 4, no. 14), then later made Taming the Ocean Monastery
(Fig. 4, no. 37) his regular residence. Zhao Peicheng, “Shi tan Wutai shan Zangchuan Fojiao,” 39; Xiao
Yu, “Zhangjia Hutu yu Wutai shan Fojiao,” Wutai shan yanjiu, no. 4 (1990): 13. On Lcang skya rol
pa’i rdo rje’s tenure on Wutai shan see: Ma Lianlong, “Sanshe Jiangjia Guoshi zhu xi Wutai shan shi
lue,” Wutai shan yanjiu, no. 3 (1989): 35-38; Xiao Yu, “Zhangjia Hutu,” 13-17; and Wang Jianmin,
“Zhenhai si Zhangjia Ruobi Duoji lingta kaolüe,” Wutai shan yanjiu, no. 1 (2002): 35-41.
on the mountain.99 Most significant, he wrote a Tibetan guide to Wutai shan, the
Pilgrimage Guide to the Pure Realm of
Clear and Cool Mountain (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.100
While the guide is largely drawn from the
content of Chinese gazetteers, it
importantly re-situates Wutai shan into a
larger Buddhist cosmology as one of the
five “especially excellent sites of Figure 29. Lcang skya rol pa’i rdo rje’s
empowerment.”101 After his death on burial stūpa. Taming the Ocean Monastery
Wutai shan in 1786 he was buried at his (Zhenhai si). Photograph by Gray Tuttle.
local seat, Taming the Ocean Monastery, in a white stone stūpa, which became its
own focus of pilgrimage (Fig. 29).
99
Lcang skya rol pa’i rdo rje had jurisdiction over six monasteries on Wutai shan: Taming the Ocean
Monastery (Fig. 4, no. 37), the Pule yuan (Fig. 4, no. 22), Jifu Monastery (Jifu si, 集福寺, dge tshogs
gling), Cifu si (慈福寺, byams dge gling; Fig. 4, no. 21) – where the map (Cat.1) was made, Wenshu
Monastery (Wenshu si, 文殊寺), and Guanghua Monastery (Guanghuahou si, 廣化睺寺, yongs ’dul
gling). The Jasag bla ma managed the other twenty. Wang Lu, “Wutai shan yu Xizang,” Wutai shan
yanjiu, no. 4 (1995): 25; Wen Jinyu, “Wutai shan Zangchuan Fojiao,” 26.
100
Lcang skya rol pa’i rdo rje, Zhing mchog ri bo dwangs bsil gyi gnas bshad. On its Mongolian
translation, see: Walther Heissig, Die Pekinger lamaistischen Blockdrucke in mongolischer Sprache;
Materialien zur mongolischen Literaturgeschichte (Wiesbaden: O. Harrassowitz, 1954), 163-65.
However, it is unclear if this Mongolian text is indeed a direct translation of Lcang skya rol pa’i rdo
rje’s text, or an adaptation connected with Tu’u bkwan chos kyi nyima. I would like to thank Gene
Smith for this information. Lcang skya rol pa’i rdo rje’s guide was more recently translated into Chinese:
Wang Lu, “Shengdi Qingliang shan zhi,” 7-48.
101
Bodhimaṇḍa in the center, Wutai shan in east, Potala in south, Udyana in west, and Shambhala
in north. Chou, “Ineffable Paths”; and Wen-shing Chou, “Fluid Landscape, Timeless Visions, and
Truthful Representations: A Sino-Tibetan Remapping of Qing-Dynasty Wutai Shan,” paper given at
the “Wutai Shan and Qing Culture” Conference at the Rubin Museum of Art, May 12-13, 2007.
Figure 30. Qianlong emperor as Mañjuśrī,

detail of Fig. 27.
Figure 31. Ding Guangpeng. The Shuxiang

Temple’s True image of Mañjuśrī. Hanging
scroll, ink and colors on paper; 297.3 x 159.1
cm. National Palace Museum, Taipei. (After
Berger [2003], p. 163, fig 55).
Portraits of Emperor as Mañjuśrī

A graphic part of this politically charged Tibetan Buddhist imagery produced at
court under Rol pa’i rdo rje was the overt depiction of the Qianlong emperor as
an emanation of Mañjuśrī (Fig. 30) and, by extension, of Qubilai Khan. In these
paintings the attributes of Mañjuśrī are clearly displayed: the Book of
Transcendental Wisdom (prajñāpāramitā sūtra) and the sword that cleaves through
the dark clouds of ignorance, resting on lotus blossoms at his shoulders. This is
the traditional iconographic formula used to identify someone as the emanation of
a deity or as the reincarnation of a predecessor in Tibetan Buddhist art. Further,
in the Mañjuśrīmulakalpa, Mañjuśrī is described as “the great cakravartin-chief
(the divinely anointed ruler)...he holds a great wheel which is turning...” reflected
by the wheel (cakra) held in Qianlong’s own hand. Reinforcing this message are
inscriptions in Tibetan on the front of the paintings, which states directly that the
Qianlong emperor depicted here is:
Ṭīkṣṇa-Mañjuśrī, the great being (mahātma) who manifests as lord of men,

king of Buddhist Law (dharma), may he be steadfast on the vajra throne, and [his]
wishes be spontaneously fulfilled, and may he have great fortune.102
Seated prominently, in a large nimbus above the figure of the Qianlong emperor
as Mañjuśrī incarnate, is Lcang skya rol pa’i rdo rje with an inscription “rtsa ba’i
bla ma,” or “root guru,” reinforcing their spiritual relationship and validating
Qianlong’s role as Mañjuśrī, and Qubilai Khan. There is textual evidence that the
conflation between Qianlong and Qubilai expressed in these paintings was known
in Rol pa’i rdo rje and Qianlong’s lifetime. Moreover, their active part in promoting
this politico-religious rhetoric can be found in the Lcang skya’s own writings, such
as the aforementioned translation of ’Phags pa’s biography (1753), where it is
stated outright. Like his grandfather the Qianlong emperor visited Wutai shan
many times, and as Berger suggests it was likely around the time of his first tour
of Wutai shan in 1750 that these images of Qianlong as Mañjuśrī began to be
painted.103
It has been long assumed that these images of Qianlong as Mañjuśrī produced
at the imperial court were only directed at a very small audience who could decode
such cryptic iconography. But as Berger reveals, a large replica of the famous
miraculous “true image” of Mañjuśrī on his lion at Wutai shan’s Shuxiang
Monastery (Shuxiang si, 殊像寺; Fig. 4, no. 42) commissioned by the Qianlong
emperor in 1761, which was placed in public view at Baoxiang Monastery
(Baoxiang si, 寶相寺) outside Beijing (Fig. 31), was known in local Chinese
folklore as an image of the Qianlong emperor as Mañjuśrī, suggesting that ordinary
Chinese were well aware of this visual message as well.104 That the British diplomat
Lord McCartney was told by a Tartar (Mongol) official during his 1793 embassy
that the Qianlong emperor was an incarnation of Qubilai Khan also suggests that
this association was well known.105
102
’jam dpal rnon po mi’i rje bor/ rol pa’i bdag chen chos kyi rgyal/ rdo rje’i khri la zhabs brtan
cing/ bzhed don lhun grub skal ba bzang/. See for instance: in the Freer-Sackler Gallery (F2000.4);
and the National Palace Museum, Cultural Relics of Tibetan Buddhism Collected in the Qing Palace
(Hong Kong: Forbidden City Press, 1992), pl. 32.
103
Patricia Berger, “The Jiaqing Emperor’s Magnificent Record of the Western Tour ,” Journal of
the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 6 (December 2011),
104
Berger, “Preserving the Nation,” 161-63, and figure 55. The (carving and) worship of this stone
image was presided over by Lcang skya rol pa’i rdo rje (Wang Jianmin, “Zhenhai si Zhangjia Ruobi
Duoji lingta kaolüe,” 36; Ma Lianlong, “Sanshe Jiangjia Guoshi,” 36). For more on potential Chinese
audiences for imperial activity on Wutai shan, including Tibetan Buddhist, see Tuttle, “Tibetan Buddhism
at Wutai Shan,” 17-20.
105
On Lord McCartney’s 1793 embassy, see: James Hevia, Cherishing Men From Afar: Qing Guest
Ritual and the Macartney Embassy of 1793 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995); and Uspensky,
“The Previous Incarnations.”
Royal Inheritance through Reincarnation in Tibet: The Fifth Dalai Lama
Figure 32. Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngag dbang blo

bzang (1617–1682) . Tibet; 18th century. Figure 33. Srong btsan sgam po (ruled
Pigment on cloth; 70.625" h. x 40.5" w. Rubin 617-650). (From a set of the previous lives of
Museum of Art. C2003.9.2 (HAR 65275). the Dalai Lamas). Tibet, 19 century. Pigments
of cloth; 29.875" h. x 19.25" w. Rubin Museum
of Art C2004.38.1.
Such use of royal Buddhist imagery

was not an isolated incident during this
period. At almost exactly the same time
as the founding of the Qing Empire in the
mid-seventeenth century in China, a very
similar language of divine inheritance,
the succession of past glorious empires
through reincarnation, was being
employed in Tibet. The Fifth Dalai Lama
(1617-1682; Fig. 32), who came to power
through Mongol military might in the Figure 34. Potala Palace. Tibet.
1640s, identified himself as an incarnation of the Bodhisattva of Compassion,
Avalokiteśvara.106 This was a politically loaded choice, because not only was
106
The Fifth Dalai Lama’s History of Tibet (1643) says that the Mongol leader who placed him in
power, Güüshi Khan (1582-1655), ruled over a unified Tibet, not the Dalai Lama himself. Later Tibetan
sources (for example, Dkon mchog bstan pa rab rgyas, Mdo smad chos ’byung [History of Amdo]
[Gansu: Minzu chubanshe, 1987]) are very clear that the Dalai Lama was only given control of the
thirteen myriarchies of central Tibet, the same as the Sa skya and Phag mo gru in the thirteenth-fourteenth
Avalokiteśvara the patron deity of Tibet but also because the founder of the Tibetan
Empire, Srong btsan sgam po (ruled 617-650), was considered his emanation (Fig.
33).107 By asserting himself as an emanation of Avalokiteśvara, the Dalai Lama
was symbolically declaring that his was a divine kingship and more specifically
that he was in the lineage of the Tibetan emperor who first united Tibet and thus
positioned himself as the rightful inheritor of the old Tibetan Empire. To reinforce
this association he built his own massive seat of power on the same hill (Red Hill
[dmar po ri]) where once stood the palace of the Tibetan emperors of old and
named it “Potala” (Fig. 34) after the earthly abode of Avalokiteśvara, Mount
Potalaka. Some of the first instances of the Manchu emperors being referred to as
the “Mañjughoṣa emperors” is found in a letter from the Fifth Dalai Lama to the
Qing founder (Hongtaiji) in 1640s and 1650s,108 and one cannot help but wonder
at the timing of the Dalai Lama’s use of such language in this communication to
another ruler during his own rise to power, with the subtext reading “Tibet is ruled
by Avalokiteśvara (me) in the west, and China is ruled by Mañjuśrī (you) in the
east – separate but equal.”109
and fourteenth-early seventeenth centuries. Some later Tibetan historians (for example, Shakabpa)
claimed that the Fifth Dalai Lama ruled a much greater territory analogous to the old Tibetan Empire.
See: Derek Maher, “An Examination of a Critical Appraisal of Tsepön Shakabpa’s One Hundred
Thousand Moons,” paper given at the International Association of Tibetan Studies, Bonn, Germany,
August 27-September 2, 2006; Derek Maher, “The Dalai Lamas and State Power,” Religion Compass
1, no. 2 (2007): 260-788. I would like to thank Gray Tuttle for this clarification. On the Dalai Lama’s
identification with Avalokiteśvara, see Ishihama Yumiko, “On the Dissemination of the Belief in the
Dalai Lama as a Manifestation of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara,” Acta Asiatica 64 (Jan. 1993): 38-56;
and Matthew Kapstein, “Remarks on the Maṇi bKa’-’bum and the Cult of Āvalokiteśvara in Tibet,”
in Tibetan Buddhism: Reason and Revelation, edited by Steven D. Goodman and Ronald M. Davidson
(Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991), 79-94. On the Fifth Dalai Lama’s
participation/compliance in the Mongol violence that brought him to power, see: Elliot Sperling,
“‘Orientalism’ and Aspects of Violence in the Tibetan Tradition,” in Imagining Tibet: Perceptions,
Projections, and Fantasies, edited by Thierry Dodin and Heinz Rather (Boston: Wisdom Publications,
2001).
107
This is indicated by the small Amitābha Buddha’s head peaking out of the emperor’s turban.
108
There are two letters addressed to the founder of the Qing (Gong ma rgyal po hong di) in the
collected letters of the Fifth Dalai Lama (published separately as correspondence of the Fifth Dalai
Lama to persons in China, Tibet, Mongolia, and so forth: Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, Rgya bod
hor sog gi mchog bar pa rnams la ’phrin yig snyan ngag tu bkod pa rab snyan rgyud mang [Xining:
Minzu chubanshe, 1993]). The first letter (pp. 91-93) is undated (the 1640 letter?), and a second letter
(pp. 168-71) is dated to 1655, both of which refer to the Manchu ruler (referred to within the text as
the “lord” in a title combining Mongolian and Tibetan: Bog to rgyal po [Hongtaiji]) as the Mañjughoṣa
emperor (’jam dbyangs gong ma). This reference to Mañjuśrī likely stems from the prophecy contained
in the Bka’ thang zangs gling ma (by the treasure revealer Mnga’ bdag nyang ral nyi ma ’od zer – see
footnote 28 above), which the Fifth Dalai Lama was quite fond of. There is also a 1640 entry in the
Fifth Dalai Lama’s autobiography (vol. 1, f. 94r) which refers to him sending one a letter to Hongtaiji
(who he again refers to as the Bog to rgyal po), but it is not clear if this is in reference to the same letter.
I would like to thank Gene Smith for this information. There is also documentary evidence that suggests
Tibetan lamas were proselytizing in Manchu territories in the early seventeenth century. One can trace
Manchu aspirations to rule in the Mongol model to Qing Taizi (r. 1616-1626) and his relationship to
his lama, Olug Darhan Nangso, from whom he received initiation prior to 1621. See Grupper, The
Manchu Imperial Cult, 51. On Manchu use of indigenous Mongolian models see Elverskog, Our Great
Qing.
109
This interpretation is strongly suggested by the fact that the Fifth Dalai Lama wrote into the
biography of the Third Dalai Lama (the great proselytizer of Tibetan Buddhism among the Mongols),
Sixth Dalai Lama’s Exile on Wutai shan

While the promotion of the cult of
Mañjuśrī at Wutai shan by the Manchus
could also be interpreted as an attempt to
counteract the influence of the Fifth Dalai
Lama among the Mongols, his own
lineage and monastic order soon became
heavily invested in Wutai shan. Many
Tibetans and Mongolians believe that his
successor, the Sixth Dalai Lama, Tshangs
dbyangs rgya mtsho (1683-1706/1746;
Fig. 35), a popular and controversial
historical figure who was supposed to
have died in custody en route to the
imperial capital, secretly lived out his
days in meditation in a cave at Wutai shan
(Fig. 4, no. 63).110 The death of the Fifth
Dalai Lama was kept hidden by his
successor’s regent for many years, and
the boy identified as his reincarnation was
by then not interested in living the life of
a renunciate. Instead he preferred archery
and the company of women to his
religious duties, and is fondly
remembered to this day among Tibetans
for his love poetry. This outraged the
Kangxi emperor, who considered him
illegitimate and ordered his arrest. As he
Figure 35. Sixth Dalai Lama Tshangs dbyangs
rgya mtsho (1683–1706/1746). Mongolia, 18th traveled under armed guard toward
century. Mineral pigments on cloth; 29.5" h. x Beijing he fell ill and died near lake
14" w. Rubin Museum of Art C2004.37.2 (HAR Kokonnor in A mdo (Eastern Tibet,
65384).
modern-day Qinghai Province [青海]),
some suggest by poison. However, a secret biography (written in 1757) edited by
a Mongolian monk alleges that the Sixth Dalai Lama was spared by the Mañjughoṣa
emperor, himself a bodhisattva, and allowed to live in exile on Wutai shan,
meditating in a cave with his female attendant. This site, the Cave of Avalokiteśvara
(Guanyin dong, 观音洞, spyan ras gzigs kyi phug; Fig. 4, no. 43), continues to be
a very popular pilgrimage destination for both Tibetans and Mongolians.
which he was writing on route to the Qing court, a prediction of Manchu rule in China. Elverskog,
“Wutai Shan in the Mongol Literary Imaginaire .”
110
On this secret biography of the Sixth Dalai Lama see: Piotr Klafkowski, “Dharmatala’s History
of Buddhism in Mongolia as an Unknown Account of the Life of the Sixth Dalai Lama,” Acta Orientalia
Academiae Scientiarm Hungaricae 34, nos. 1-3 (1980): 69-74; and Michael Aris, Hidden Treasures
and Secret Lives: A Study of Pemalingpa, 1450-1521, and the Sixth Dalai Lama, 1683-1706 (London;
New York: Kegan Paul, 1989), 198-99.
Tibetan and Mongolian Monasteries on Wutai shan

Despite the fact that Wutai shan is a mountain site, it is man-made structures, the
monasteries, which were at the heart of religious activity on Wutai shan as well
as the focus of pilgrimage in their own right. The Dge lugs monastic order has ten
major Tibetan and Mongolian monasteries on Wutai shan: Pusa ding Monastery
(Pusa ding, 菩薩頂, byang chub sems dpa’i spor; Fig. 4, no. 14), Rāhula Temple
(Luohou si, 羅睺寺, sgra gcan ’dzin gyi lha khang; Fig. 4, no. 41), Temple of
Longevity and Tranquility (Shouning si, 壽寧寺, rtag brtan bde chen gling; Fig.
4, no. 72), Sanquan Monastery (Sanquan si, 三泉寺, chub mig gsum ’dres gling;
Fig. 4, no. 73), Qifo si (七佛寺, sangs rgyas rabs bdun dgon; Fig. 4, no. 25), Cave
of Sudhana (Shancai dong, 善財洞, nor bzang sgrub phug; Fig. 4, no. 69), Tailu
Monastery (Tailu si 臺麓寺; Fig. 4, no. 70), Vajra Cave (Jingang ku, 金剛窟, rdo
rje phug; Fig. 4, no. 58), Yuhua Pond (Yuhua chi, 玉花池; Fig. 4, no. 71), and
Yongquan Monastery (Yongquan si, 湧泉寺; Fig. 4, no. 33). All were said to have
been converted from Chinese Buddhist to Dge lugs temples in 1683 or 1705.111
There are a total of twenty-five Tibetan and Mongolian monasteries on Wutai shan
(the vast majority being Dge lugs institutions), which also include: Shifang Hall
(Shifang tang, 十方堂, grub phyogs kun ’dus gling; also called Guangren si, 廣仁
寺; Fig. 4, no. 67), Yuanzhao si (圓照寺, Kun tu khyab pa’i lha khang; Fig. 4, no.
66), Cifu si (慈福寺, byams dge gling; Fig. 4, no. 21), Taming the Ocean Monastery
(Zhenhai si, 鎮海寺, rgya mtsho ’dul ba’i gling; Fig. 4, no. 37), Cave of
Avalokiteśvara (Guanyin dong, 观音洞, spyan ras gzigs kyi phug; Fig. 4, no. 43),
Tiewa Temple (Tiewa si, 铁瓦寺, lha khang lcags thog can bya ba; Fig. 4, no.
74), Santa Monastery (Santa si, 三塔寺, mchod rten gsum pa’i gling; Fig. 4, no.
16) and the Pule yuan (普樂院, kun bde tshal; Fig. 4, no. 22). There are also
twenty-five monasteries that do not seem to appear on the map, including: Guanghua
Monastery (Guanghuahou si, 廣化睺寺, yongs ’dul gling), Jifu Monastery (Jifu
si, 集福寺, dge tshogs gling), Pushou Monastery (Pushou si, 普壽寺, kun dpag
gling), Wente Monastery (Wente si, 文特寺), Yunai Temple (Yunai An, 魚耐庵),
Nange Temple (Nange miao, 南閣庙), and Pu’an Monastery (Pu’an si, 普安寺).112
111
Wang Xiangyun, “Wutai Shan,” 8; Wen Jinyu, “Wutai shan Zangchuan Fojiao,” 25. The
monasteries in question are: Rāhula Temple (Luohou si, 羅睺寺, sgra gcan ’dzin gyi lha khang), Temple
of Longevity and Tranquility (Shouning si, 壽寧寺, rtag brtan bde chen gling), Sanquan Monastery
(Sanquan si, 三泉寺, chub mig gsum ’dres gling), Yuhua Monastery (Yuhua si, 玉花寺), Qifo si (七
佛寺, sangs rgyas rabs bdun dgon), Vajra Cave (Jingang ku, 金剛窟, rdo rje phug), Cave of Sudhana
(Shancai dong, 善財洞, nor bzang sgrub phug), Pu’an Monastery (Pu’an si, 普安寺), Tailu Monastery
(Tailu si, 臺麓寺), Yongquan Monastery (Yongquan si, 湧泉寺). On Seven Buddha Monastery see
Bai Fusheng, “Xiaoji Wutai shan Qifo si” [Seven Buddhas Monastery at Wutai shan], Wutai shan
yanjiu, no. 3 (1999): 36-38. However, as Köhle, “Why Did the Kangxi Emperor Go to Wutai Shan?,”
77-78, points out, while this conversion of ten monasteries is a commonly stated in secondary literature,
none cite primary sources.
112
See Wang Xiangyun, “Wutai Shan,” 6; Zhao Peicheng, “Shi tan Wutai shan Zangchuan Fojiao,”
39. Is Pu’an si (普庵寺) the same as Pu’an si (普安寺; Fig. 4, no. 55)? The vast majority (twenty-one)
were Dge lugs institutions: Pusa ding Monastery (Pusa ding, 菩薩頂, byang chub sems dpa’i spor),
Some of these later temples were built after the blocks for the map were carved in
1846 and therefore not represented.
Because many of the Tibetan and Mongolian monasteries on Wutai shan were
converted from Chinese institutions, their architecture is typically Chinese, modeled
on palace architecture, with tiled hip-gabled roofs. Other distinctive features
distinguish these Chinese temple formats from typical Tibetan monastic layouts,
such as bell and drum towers. Contrasting with the Chinese architecture of the
buildings, the stūpas are constructed in a Tibetan style (Fig. 18).113 Inside the
buildings is often found a mixture of Tibetan and Chinese images (Fig. 2?). In
some cases this confluence of cultures can be seen within single objects, such as
a large appliqué of a Tibetan master made with Chinese artistic techniques (Cat.
28), which was meant to hang in just such a monastery: Cave of Sudhana (Shancai
dong, 善財洞, nor bzang sgrub phug; Fig. 4, no. 69).114
Rāhula Temple (Luohou si, 羅睺寺, sgra gcan ’dzin gyi lha khang), Guanghua Monastery (Guangren
si, 廣仁寺), Guanghua Monastery (Guanghuahou si, 廣化睺寺, yongs ’dul gling), Tailu Monastery
(Tailu si, 臺麓寺), Pushou Monastery (Pushou si, 普壽寺, kun dpag gling), Temple of Longevity and
Tranquility (Shouning si, 壽寧寺, rtag brtan bde chen gling), Qifo si (七佛寺, sangs rgyas rabs bdun
dgon), Sanquan Monastery (Sanquan si, 三泉寺, chub mig gsum ’dres gling), Santa Monastery (Santa
si, 三塔寺, mchod rten gsum pa’i gling), Cave of Avalokiteśvara (Guanyin dong, 观音洞, spyan ras
gzigs kyi phug), Yuhua Pond (Yuhua chi, 玉花池), Tiewa Temple (Tiewa si, 铁瓦寺, lha khang lcags
thog can bya ba), Yongquan Monastery (Yongquan si, 湧泉寺), Yunai Temple (Yunai an, 魚耐庵),
Nange Temple (Nange miao, 南閣庙), Pu’an Monastery (Pu’an si, 普安寺), Jinhua si (金华寺),
Yuanzhao si (圓照寺), Jifu Monastery (Jifu si, 集福寺, dge tshogs gling), Cifu si (慈福寺, byams dge
gling). On Cifu si, see Chun Rong, “Cifu si.” All eighteen Tibetan and Mongolian monasteries on the
woodblock map are singled out for gazetteer-style entries on the digitally decoded map: Rubin Museum
o f A r t , “ W u t a i s h a n M a p B l o c k p r i n t , ”
http://wutaishan.rma2.org/rma_viewer.php?image_id=1&mode=info.
113
On Tibetan shaped stūpas on Wutai shan, see: Wang Hongli, “Zangchuan fo ta de xingzhi ji qi
tedian,” Wutai shan yanjiu, no. 3 (2001): 18-20; and Xiao Yu, “Wutai shan zhi ta,” Wutai shan yanjiu,
no. 1 (2002): 45-48.
114
The full name of the cave is the “Cave of the Bodhisattva Sudhana” (byang chub sems dpa’ gzhun
nu nor bzang gi sgrub phug). See: Se kri ngag dbang bstan dar, Dwangs bsil ri bo rtse lnga’i gnas
bshad (Beijing: Krong ko’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang, 2007), 66.
This meeting and mixing of Chinese

and Tibetan culture at the monasteries of
Wutai shan extends well beyond the
external aesthetics to the clergy and
congregation as well. As Tuttle reveals
below, Wutai shan had a vibrant
community of ethnic Chinese
practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism, who
appear participating in the central ritual
activity of the map (Cat. 1; Fig. 36)
alongside their Tibetan and Mongolian
colleagues.115 In some cases rituals and
liturgies are printed and performed in both
Tibetan and Chinese at the same
monastery at Wutai shan. This
Sino-Tibetan cultural confluence is a
fairly unique quality to Wutai shan.
Many of these monasteries on Wutai Figure 36. Maitreya Festival. 1846 Wutai shan
map detail.
shan have close institutional relationships
with major monasteries throughout the Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhist world,
especially with the northeastern Tibetan area of A mdo (modern-day Qinghai and
Gansu provinces). For instance, Shifang Hall (Shifang tang, 十方堂, grub phyogs
kun ’dus gling; Fig. 4, no. 67), was founded in 1831 by a monk from Lhun grub
bde chen gling Monastery (Dachongjiao si, 大崇教寺) and Co ne Monastery
(Zhuonichanding si, 卓尼禅定寺), both in Gansu Province.116 Shifang Hall became
115
Yellow robes with orange trim are the color coding used as an ethnic marker of Chinese
practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism on Wutai shan (see Cat. 10-12 and Fig. 36). Tuttle, Tibetan Buddhists
in the Making, 212-14; Tuttle, “Tibetan Buddhism at Ri bo rtse lnga”; and Tuttle, “Gazetteers and
Golden Roof-tiles: Publicizing Qing Support of Tibetan Buddhism at Wutai Shan,” paper given at the
“Wutai Shan and Qing Culture” Conference at the Rubin Museum of Art, May 12-13, 2007.
116
The name of the founder of Shifang Hall on Wutai shan is the high-ranking monk Blo bzang
sman lam (Amo Luosang Manlong, 阿摩洛桑曼隆). See Luosang Danzhu and Popa Ciren, Anduo
gucha chanding si (Lanzhou: Gansu minzu chubanshe, 1995), 249; Suonan Cao, “Wutai shan yu
zangchuan fojiao,” Xizang min su 3 [1999]: 5. On Shifang Hall, see: Li Shiming, “Luohou si yu Shifang
tang” [Luohou Monastery and Shifang Hall”], Wutai shan yanjiu, no. 1 (1998): 29; Cai Hong, “Shifang
Tang” [Shifang Hall], Wutai shan yanjiu, no. 1 (1999): 23-25. Lhun grub bde chen gling Monastery
was founded in 1417 in in Minzhou (Minzhou, 岷州), Gansu Province, by Dpal ldan bkra shis, abbot
of Gro tshang rdo rje ’chang (Qutan si, 瞿曇寺). Its construction and ornamentation are closely detailed
in Dpal ldan bkra shis’s biography (Mdo smad chos ’byung [History of Amdo], 682-84), where it is
clearly described as being Chinese in architecture (with bell and drum towers) but ornamented by the
Ming court with both Chinese and Tibetan objects and images. See Karl Debreczeny, “Sino-Tibetan
Synthesis in Ming Dynasty Wall Painting at the Core and Periphery,” The Tibet Journal 28, nos. 1 and
2 (Spring and Summer 2003[b]): 49-108. Co ne bkra shis chos ’khor gling Monastery was founded by
Chos rgyal ’phags pa and his patron Qubilai Khan in 1269, and later converted to a Dge lugs institution
in 1459. Co ne expanded significantly in the eighteenth century under Manchu patronage, when the
blocks for the Tibetan canon (Bka’ ’gyur and Bstan ’gyur) was carved, for which the monastery became
famous. Monks from Co ne would travel to Shifang Hall on Wutai shan to teach, and monks from
Shifang Hall would also go to Co ne for advanced studies.
one of the most famous among the Tibetan monasteries on Wutai shan, hosting a
constant stream of visiting monks and pilgrims from Amdo. Wutai shan also had
a close relationship with Bla brang Monastery, one of the most important Dge lugs
institutions and printing centers in eastern Tibet, as detailed by Nietupski.117 A
mdo is a border area where Tibetan, Mongolian, and Chinese populations meet,
and local ethnic Chinese became strongly involved with Tibetan Buddhist
monasteries, both as patrons-laity and clergy, which links this region culturally to
Wutai shan. Nietupski also reveals that this network of prominent bla mas from
Bla brang traveling to Wutai shan were also connected to imperial cites in Beijing
such as Yonghe Palace. Monasteries of other Tibetan Buddhist traditions from
other regions are also represented on Wutai shan. For instance, one of the Rnying
ma order’s main monasteries, Kaḥthog Monastery in Sde dge (Dege, 德格;
Khams/Western Sichuan), had a branch-monastery on Wutai shan’s western peak
(Fig. 4, no. 9), where the great eighteenth-century Bka’ brgyud scholar and artist
Si tu paṇ chen chos kyi ’byung gnas was said to have stayed when he visited
China.118
Mongol Interests in Wutai shan

Based on literary evidence explored
in detail by Charleux and Elverskog,
Mongol interests in Wutai shan peaked
in the nineteenth century, when the
woodblock map in this exhibition was
made (Cat. 1). Mongol pilgrimage to
Wutai shan was also promoted by Mongol
nobility stopping there en route to Beijing
during their obligatory annual trips to the
Qing court. Many major Mongol bla mas
studied for years at Wutai shan as part of Figure 37. Making prostrations. 1846 Wutai
their monastic tenure as well.119 They shan map detail.
117
Paul K. Nietupski, “Bla brang Monastery and Wutai Shan,” Journal of the International Association
of Tibetan Studies, no. 6 (December 2011), http://www.thlib.org?tid=T5718.
118
“ri bo rtse lnga’i nub ḥphu li thi” (’Jam dbyangs rgyal mtshan, Rgyal ba kaḥ thog pa’i lo rgyus
mdor bsdus [Chengdu: Sichuan minzu chubanshe, 1996], 168). “ḥphu li thi” may be a Tibetan
transliteration for the Chinese name of Wutai shan’s western peak, Puli tai (菩利台). However the
western peak’s name is Guayue Peak (Guayue feng, 挂月峰). Kaḥthog rdo rje gdan Monastery, founded
in 1159 by Ka dam pa bde gshegs (1122-1192) in Sde dge, is one of the six major monasteries of the
Rnying ma order with one-hundred and twelve branch monasteries spread across Tibet, Sikkim, Yunnan,
Inner Mongolia, and Wutai shan in Shanxi Province. Si tu paṇ chen’s visit to the Wutai shan branch
is mentioned by Alexander Berzin, “Nyingma Monasteries,” in Chö-Yang, Year of Tibet Edition
(Dharamsala, India, 1991), 32, without citing his source. On Kaḥthog Monastery, see: ’Jam dbyangs
rgyal mtshan, Rgyal ba kaḥ thog pa’i lo rgyus mdor bsdus (branch monasteries, 166-68); ’Jigs med
bsam grub, “Sde mgon khang gyi lo rgyus [History of Sde mgon khang],” in Khams phyogs dkar mdzes
khul gyi dgon sde so so’i lo rgyus gsal bar bshad pa nang bstan gsal pa’i me long, vol. 1. (neibu)
[Kangding and Beijing: Krung goʼi bod kyi shes rig dpe skrun khang, 1995), 97-135.
119
Elverskog, “Wutai Shan in the Mongol Literary Imaginaire .”
visited from the fourth to the tenth lunar months (roughly May to November),
especially during the festivals of the sixth lunar month (which typically falls in
July), such as the Maitreya Festival, which is depicted as the ritual center of the
woodblock map (Fig. 36).120 The culmination of this festival was a dramatic and
colorful masked dance (Cat. 10-12) that were performed at a series of stations in
Tibetan and Mongolian monasteries down the central peak from Pusa ding.121
Charleux describes Mongol pilgrimage practice on the mountain, where a circuit
would take about ten days, and the more fervent pilgrims spent as many as five
years completing the journey, making prostrations along the way (Fig. 37). Sites
on Wutai shan such as Taming the Ocean Monastery (Zhenhai si, 鎮海寺, rgya
mtsho ’dul ba’i gling; Fig. 4, no. 37), Rāhula Temple (Luohou si, 羅睺寺, sgra
gcan ’dzin gyi lha khang; Fig. 4, no. 41), the Cave of Avalokiteśvara (Guanyin
dong, 观音洞, spyan ras gzigs kyi phug; Fig. 4, no. 43), and the Mother of the
Buddha Cave (Fomu dong, 佛母洞, rgyal yum sgrub phug; Fig. 4, no. 34) were
important pilgrimage destinations with special significance for the Mongols.122
Charleux importantly notes that while such imperial Tibetan Buddhist sites were
comparable to the imperial temples of Beijing, those of Wutai shan were open to
the public. She further asserts that pilgrimage to Wutai shan was even more
important to the Mongolian laypeople than to the monks, and in Inner Mongolia,
the Mongols even constructed a “Little Wutai shan,” which included versions of
many of these sites, such as the Mother’s Womb Cave.123 Wutai shan was so
important as a sacral land among Mongols that it became especially desirable for
the burial of one’s loved ones’ remains, so much so that the Qing government felt
the need to try to regulate or even curtail this practice. Elverskog provocatively
suggests that pilgrimage to Wutai shan even had a profound effect on the very
self-identity of Mongols and their sense of community.
120
First identified by Chou, “Ineffable Paths,” 119. However, Charleux (“Mongol Pilgrimages to
Wutai Shan in the Late Qing Dynasty”), identifies this as Mañjuśrī’s birthday and an image of Mañjuśrī
in the palanquin. For a Tibetan account of festivals on Wutai shan written in 1799, less then fifty years
before the panoramic woodblock map (Cat. 1) was printed, see: Dbyangs can dga’ ba’i blo gros
(1740-1827), Ri bo rtse lngar mjal skabs kyi gnas bstod mgur [A Praise of Riwo Tsenga: Songs Made
on the Occasion of Visiting There; Origins of Great Buddhist Festivals Observed There], in the Collected
Works of A kyA yongs ’dzin dbyangs can dga’ ba’i blo gros, volume 2 (kha) (Gansu Province: Sku
’bum par khang, 1799), 51-58.
121
See Zhao Peicheng, “Shi tan Wutai shan Zangchuan Fojiao,” 39-40; and Wang Bin, and Guo
Chengwen, “Wutai shan jingang wu ji lamam miao daochang,” Wutai shan yanjiu, no. 2 (1989): 33.
122
Isabelle Charleux, “Trade, Art and Architecture on the Mongols’ Sacred Mountain,” paper given
at the “Wutai Shan and Qing Culture” Conference at the Rubin Museum of Art, May 12-13, 2007; Shi
Beiyue, “Fomu Dong” [Buddha Mother Cave], Wutai Shan (2007): 44-48.
123
At Gilubar Juu (Houzhao si, 后召寺; Shanfu si, 善福寺). Isabelle Charleux, Temples et monastères
de Mongolie-intérieure (Paris: Éditions du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques: Institut
national d’histoire de l’art, 2006), 96, 156, fig. 54, and CD no. 136; Charleux, “Trade, Art and
Architecture on the Mongols’ Sacred Mountain”; Se kri ngag dbang bstan dar, Dwangs bsil ri bo rtse
lnga, 114-15.
Conclusion
Wutai shan was a unique site of cultural confluence of the Tibetan, Mongolian,
and Chinese religious and artistic traditions (Cat. 28), a localized breeding ground
for what Elverskog calls a “Qing cosmopolitan culture.” Early (pre-Yuan) Tibetan
associations with Wutai shan may not always accurately reflect actual
circumstances, as they were often the result of contemporary interests projected
back to an earlier time. Nonetheless they serve as important “memories” that made
Tibetan and Mongolian connections to the site so tangible during later periods.
Indeed these stories had a power that came to dominate later imagination subsuming
historical fact, as expressed on the 1846 map. To the faithful, Wutai shan is first
and foremost the earthly abode of the Bodhisattva of Wisdom Mañjuśrī, which
continues to be a focus of devotion, attested to by new pilgrimage guides written
in both Chinese and Tibetan languages down to this very day.124
While Wutai shan was a focus of religious pilgrimage for many groups, the
establishment and empowering of a Tibetan and Mongolian presence on the
mountain had a strong political dimension. By cutting through these many accrued
layers of perception, as well as challenging cultural assumptions that have often
colored Qing studies, the following papers provide a more nuanced prospective
on the social, ethnic, and political dynamics of the Qing dynasty. More specifically
they document that while the Manchus were following a well established imperial
practice of patronage at Wutai shan as part of establishing their own legitimacy,
this new privileging of Tibetan Buddhism, which involved a much broader
constituency than previously assumed, was a unique feature of the Qing dynasty.
The Mongolian production of the panoramic map of Wutai shan (Cat. 1), which
served as the lynchpin of the RMA exhibition, can be seen as a mark of just how
successful this Manchu propaganda campaign was by the nineteenth century. Wutai
shan’s political significance has not been lost on modern China’s leaders either,
as Mao himself stopped at Wutai shan on his way to Beijing in 1949, it would
seem in acknowledgement of the mountain’s historic role in the coronation of
rulers and the founding of empires.
-
124
For instance a new Tibetan-language guide to Wutai shan: Dwangs bsil ri bo rtse lnga’i gnas
bshad, or A Pilgrimage Guide to Clear and Cool Five-Peak Mountain, was just published in 2007.
“Wutai shan: Pilgrimage to Five-Peak Mountain” Catalog
The Mountain
Cat. 1: Panoramic Map of Wutai shan
ri bo dwangs bsil kyi gnas bkod
-
Serigün tungγalaγ aγula-yin oron-u jokiyal

-
五臺山聖境全圖
This panoramic view of the sacred
mountain Wutai shan (“Five-Terrace
Mountain”) is a six- foot-wide woodblock
print on cloth that has been hand colored.
There are eleven surviving prints of this
map that have been identified around the
world.125 The map was made on Wutai
shan in 1846 by a Mongolian monk at a
local Mongolian monastery, Cifu si (Fig.
4, no. 21). Construction of Cifu si was
Cifu si (慈福寺) Wutai shan, China, dated 1846. completed in 1829; therefore, this map
Painted and colored woodblock print; 53.25" was made shortly after the monastery was
h. x 73.25" w. x 2.375" d. Rubin Museum of Art.
C2004.29.1 (HAR 65371). founded, and, as Cifu si is placed near the
center of the image, it literally puts this
new temple on the map, establishing it in a position of authority.126 Cifu si became
the main lodging for Mongolian monks visiting the mountain.
This map contains more than 130 sites of interest to the pilgrims who ventured
to Mount Wutai (see Fig. 4). These sites are labeled with Chinese and Tibetan
inscriptions, including Buddhist monasteries, Taoist temples, villages, sacred
objects, and locations of events, both historic and miraculous. Winding paths with
tiny travelers link one temple to another, suggesting possible itineraries of
pilgrimage. Pilgrims traveled this sacred mountain to see divine visions, which
took the form of miraculous light and cloud formations, a ubiquitous presence on
this map. The most prominent monastery, which appears much larger than the
others (Fig. 4, no. 14) is Bodhisattva Peak Monastery (Pusa ding).
125
Seven are enumerated in Chou, “Ineffable Paths,” 126, fn. 11. Several printings have been
published and studied in Europe, China, and America: F. A. Bischoff, “Die Wu T’ai shan darstellung
von 1846,” in Arbeitskreis fur Tibetische und Buddhistische studien (Wein: Universitat Wein, 1983);
Halén, Mirrors of the Void; Chun Rong, “Cifu si”; Chou, “Ineffable Paths”; and Chou, “Maps of Wutai
Shan.”
126
Chou, “Ineffable Paths,” 119.
A masked dance procession, the focus

of ritual activity on the mountain, leads
from the monastery down the center of
the map. This temple was converted into
a Manchu imperial establishment shortly
after the Qing dynasty was founded in the
mid-seventeenth century, denoted by its
bright yellow roof.
The content of these sites and events
marked on the map are a complex
historical layering of Chinese, Tibetan,
Mongol and Manchu involvement on the
mountain. This layering of identities
includes some of the earliest Chinese Tāranātha emanating out of a stūpa. Detail of
1846 Wutai shan map (Fig. 4, no. 62 detail).
monasteries associated with the cult of
Mañjuśrī on the mountain, such as Foguang si (Fig. 4, no. 1 – curiously painted
over in the RMA printing) founded in the sixth century; the twelfth-century tantric
adept Pha dam pa (Fig. 4, no. 13) who Tibetans regard as one of the earliest direct
links between their tradition and the mountain; Tāranātha (Fig. 4, no. 62), root of
the first Mongol incarnation lineage, the Rje btsun dam pa, seen emanating out of
his stūpa wearing the black-lobed hat of that preeminent office, underscoring his
adopted Mongolian identity in his role as Bogda Gegen; and the Kangxi emperor
(ruled 1662-1722) – the first Manchu emperor to be overtly declared Mañjuśrī
incarnate – is depicted pacifying the region by shooting a tiger (Fig. 4, no. 64).127
The Mongols were militant followers of the Dge lugs pa, the monastic order of
the Dalai Lama, and this map asserts not only a Tibetan Buddhist religious identity
to Wutai shan, but more specifically a Dge lugs pa identity. The founder of the
Dge lugs pa, Tsong kha pa, who was considered a Tibetan emanation of Mañjuśrī,
can be found everywhere on the map – such as visions of him emanating on clouds
from Wutai shan’s five peaks. Thus this map declares both an ethnic and sectarian
identity.
127
A number of these sites are identified and discussed by Chou, “Ineffable Paths.” The black-lobed
hat depicted on the figure emanating out of the Tāranātha Stūpa can be most clearly seen in the Helsinki
printing (see Chou, “Maps of Wutai Shan,” Image 6) and can be compared to nineteenth-century
depictions of hats worn by the First Mongol Rje btsun dam pa, Zanabazar (1635-1723), such as seen
in Berger, “Preserving the Nation,” 129, fig. 2. In essence then, it is the Mongol Rje btsun dam pa who
is depicted emanating out of the Tāranātha Stūpa, branding Wutai shan with a Mongol identity.
The differences between various

printings of this map around the world
have been well studied by Chou,128
revealing various interpretive strategies
employed by the colorists who altered the
content of several stories. Some other
important clues can also be found in the
coloring of the print in the top left corner
of the map (Fig. 38) which suggests Figure 38. 1846 Wutai shan map, top left detail.
alternate interpretations as to the identity Rubin Museum of Art Collection.
of the artist. For instance, the palette of the coloring of this print in the Rubin
Museum of Art, with its heavy layers of green and blue, is consistent with Tibetan
painting in the sman bris style as it traveled to Mongolia.129 This, coupled with the
covering over of the dated Chinese colophon, and the miss-spelling of such a simple
word as “mountain” in the Tibetan title of the work, both at top left, all point to a
Mongolian artist as the colorist.130
In conjunction with this exhibition a digital scan of this woodblock map of
Wutai shan allows the viewer to explore the rich detail contained within this historic
document.131 A group of approximately forty sites of particular historic importance
have been selected out for special attention, providing the viewer with descriptions
drawn primarily from Chinese gazetteers and Tibetan pilgrimage guides of Wutai
shan, photographs of the actual sites being represented, and related artwork in the
exhibition:
http://wutaishan.rma2.org/rma_viewer.php?image_id=1&mode=info
The content of the trilingual dedicatory inscriptions at the bottom of the map,
translated below, vary depending on their audiences. For instance the second part
of the Chinese inscription is of particular interest, as Chou has observed, it instructs
the viewer on the image’s efficacy and uses, which does not appear in the Tibetan
or Mongolian texts. This marks the Chinese as somewhat outside the tradition by
the maker of the 1846 map, even though the visual strategy of depicting Wutai
shan and its miraculous geography is a Chinese convention that goes back at least
a millennium.
128
Chou, “Ineffable Paths”; and Chou, “Maps of Wutai Shan.”
129
As Chou (“Ineffable Paths” and “Maps of Wutai Shan”) points out, this is unlike the coloring of
other published versions of this woodblock print, such as the one in Helsinki, which is hand colored
reminiscent of popular Chinese New Year Woodblock print (nianhua, 年畫) of Shanxi Province. The
coloring of the copy in the Library of Congress conforms more to Chinese conventions of landscape
depiction (Chou, “Ineffable Paths”).
130
The Tibetan spells “ro bi” instead of “ri bo.” Such a basic mistake in such a prominent place on
this work suggests that the colorist who re-copied the titles that were covered over with heavy pigment
was not Tibetan literate. In the Chinese epigraphic tradition the dated colophon is extremely important,
and it is unlikely that a Chinese artist would have forgotten to recopy this section. This differs from
Chou’s reading in “Maps of Wutai Shan,” who sees a Tibetan hand at work.
131
Special thanks to David Newman for all of his work on the design of this valuable digital resource
and to Professor Gray Tuttle for sharing his photographs of Wutai shan.
Trilingual Dedicatory Inscriptions
Tibetan
ri bo dwangs bsil kyi gnas bkod//

/dus gsum rgyal kun kun nas bsngags pa’i khams/ /khams gsum bar snang
snang byed ’od ’phros sku/ /sku gsum gzugs ston ston pa ’jam dpal mchog /mchog
gsum rang nyid nyid du gyur bar ’dud/ /phal po che’i mdo las/ /’di nas byang
shar mtshams gyi gnas shig na/ /ri bo dwangs bsil zhes bya’i gnas yod de/ /sngon
chad rgyal sras mang po de na bzhugs/ /da lta rgyal sras ’phags pa ’jam dpal
gyis/ /’khor gyi byang chub sems pa khri phrag bcas/ /de du bzhugs nas dam pa’i
chos kyang gsungs/ /zhes pa dang / yang rin po che snying bo’i gzungs las/ /rgyal
bo kyin kang me kyi la/ /bcom ldan ’das kyis bka’ stsal pa/ /nga mya ngan las
’das pa’i ’og tu ’dzam bu gling gi byang shar gyi mtshams su ri bo rtse lnga zhes
pa’i gnas chen yod de/ /’jam dpal gzhon nus der ’gro ’chag dang ’dug gnas byed
cing ’gro ba thams cad gyi don du chos gsungs so/ /grangs med pa’i lha klu sde
brgyad ’khor dang bcas pa rnams bsnyen bkur byed zhes pa la sogs pa’i mdo
rgyud du ma nas bsngags pa’i gnas mchog ’di nyid kyi bkod pa mdor bsdus tsam
bris pa/ /’di la mthong thos dran reg gi ’brel ba ’thob tshad tshe rabs kun tu rje
btsun ’jam pa’i dbyangs kyis rjes su ’dzin pa’i rgyur dmigs te/ /ri bo rtse lnga’i
byams dge gling gi bla brang du/ /dad ldan sbyin bdag tā khu re’i rje btsun dam
pa’i zhabs gras sangga’i ’as mag gi brkos pa dge slong lhun grub zhes bya bas
rgyu yon sbyar ste/ ta’i ching to’u kwang rgyal bo khri bzhugs lo nyer drug pa’i
sa ga zla ba’i tshes bco lnga’i nyin par spar du brkos pa’o// //skyabs mchog ’jam
dbyangs gnas bkod ’di/
/gang dang gang la mchod byas pa/ /de dang de ru mi mthun phyogs/ /zhi nas
bde skyid dar bar shog/
//bkra shis par gyur cig/ // mangga laṃ//
Panoramic [Map] of Clear and Cool Mountain132

Homage to this realm (Wutai shan), which all the Buddhas of the Three Times
thoroughly praise; to the body radiating light that illuminates the three worlds;133
to the excellent Teacher Mañjuśrī who displays the three Buddha bodies,134 who
132
The poetic Tibetan title for this map comes from the old Chinese name for Wutai shan, “Clear
and Cool Mountain” (Qingliang shan, 清涼山, ri bo dwangs bsil), which is the name of Wutai shan’s
gazetteer, Record of Clear and Cool Mountain (Qingliang shan zhi; composed in 1596 and revised in
1661). Ri bo dwangs bsil is also the name used for Wutai shan in the title of Lcang skya rol pa’i rdo
rje’s Tibetan guide to Wutai shan, Zhing mchog ri bo dwangs bsil gyi gnas bshad dad pa’i padmo rgyas
byed ngo mtshar nyi ma’i snang ba, from whence this map title probably comes. Interestingly the
Chinese title for the map simply calls the site “Wutai shan,” its more common appellation. The
Mongolian title follows the Tibetan, not the Chinese: Composition of the Land of Cool-Clear Mountain
(Serigün tungγalaγ aγula-yin oron-u jokiyal; see below).
133
The three realms of being or world realms are: the desire realm (’dod pa’i khams, kāmadhātu),
the form realm (gzugs khams, rūpadhātu), and the formless realm (gzugs med kyi khams, ārūpyadhātu).
134
The three buddha bodies are: dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, and nirmanakaya.
is himself the three jewels (the Buddha, his teachings, and the monastic
community).135
Herein is a condensed illustrated arrangement of this supreme place of pilgrimage
that many sūtra and tantra praise, such as: The Flower Garland Sūtra says:136 “In
a land on the northeastern boarder from here, there is a holy site called ‘Clear and
Cool Mountain.’ In former times many bodhisattvas resided there. Nowadays the
bodhisattva, the noble Mañjuśrī, resides there, together with a retinue of ten
thousand bodhisattvas, and preaches the holy dharma.” Also, the Ratnagarbha-
dhāraṇī Sūtra says: “The Bhagavat proclaimed to Rgyal bo kyin kang me kyi (
Vajrapāṇi),137 ‘After I pass away, on the northeastern edge of the Rose Apple
Continent, there is a great holy place called ‘Five-Peak Mountain’138 where the
youthful Mañjuśrī roams and dwells and preaches the dharma for the sake of all
beings. Innumerable [deities of the] eight classes of gods and serpent spirits (nāga),
together with their retinues, pay obeisance to him.”
Intending that this [map] be a cause for all who come into contact with it via
sight, hearing, and memory in all generations will be cared for by the venerable
Mañjuśrī, I, the bhikṣu Lhun grub, a carver from the Sangga monastic community
(ayimag) [of Amurbayas Qulangtu Monastery, Mongolia],139 the senior attendant
to the faithful donor, the Rje btsun dam pa of Da Khüriye (tā khu re) [Mongolia],140
135
Here Mañjuśrī takes the role of the guru, or teacher, who embodies the three jewels. While one’s
teacher might be described this way, it is unusual for a deity.
136
Rin po che snying po’i gzungs = Mañjuśrī-dharma-ratnagarbha-dhāraṇī Sūtra ([Wenshu shili
fa] Baozang tuoluoni jing, [文殊師利法]寶藏陀羅尼經)? Interestingly the Tibetan version of the text
being quoted here (rin chen snying po gzungs) does not mention Mañjuśrī or Wutai shan (the Sanskrit
version of the Mañjuśrī-dharma-ratnagarbha-dhāraṇī Sūtra is no longer extant). Etienne Lamotte has
argued that the Chinese translation of the Flower Garland Sūtra was “falsified” to assign Mañjuśrī a
dwelling place on Mount Wutai, just as accounts of Chinese history were refashioned long after the
actual events to legitimize the bodhisattva’s long tenure on the mountain. See: Mary Anne Cartelli,
“On a Five-colored Cloud: The Songs of Mount Wutai,” The Journal of the American Oriental Society
(Oct 2004).
137
Rgyal bo kyin kang me kyi is transliterated from the Chinese, Jingang Miji Wang (金剛密跡王;
Soothill, Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms, 281; a form of Vajrapāṇi). That the Tibetan text on
the map does not use the common Tibetan name for this deity is likely because this passage of the text
is a Chinese interpolation that does not exist in the Tibetan (see footnote 10 above). It also suggests
that the text on the map was first written in Chinese and then translated into Tibetan.
138
The Chinese texts says “there is a country called ‘Great China’” which is omitted here.
139
Around large Mongolian monasteries were special lama communities called ayimag. Around
Amurbayasqulangtu Monastery in northern Khalkha (Mongolia), a monastery built in honor of the
Jebtsundamba Khutukhtu, were six or so such lama communities, one of which was Sangga or Sanggai.
Five to six hundred lamas lived here. This, most likely is the Sangga-yin monastic community that is
referred to. I would like to thank Brian Baumann, who translated the Mongolian text on this map, for
explaining this Mongolian term to me.
140
tā khu re is the Mongolian name Da Khüriye, or “The Great Monastery” of the Jebtsundamba
incarnations, founded in 1654, which became the core of the capital of Mongolia, modern day
Ulaanbaatar (see Atwood, “Validation by Holiness or Sovereignty,” 566.) Interestingly Chun Rong,
“Cifu si”; and Chou, “Ineffable Paths,” take the text to say: “the disciple of Jebtsundamba from the
Great Kingdom of China (dazhenna, 大震那)…” However I believe this to be in error, the Chinese
text rather reading Dakuwei (大窟圍), reflecting the Tibetan reading “Tā khu re” (Da Khüriye). This
previous reading of the Chinese text by Chun Rong, and followed by Chou, “Ineffable Paths,” inserts
applied resources to this holy map at the teacher’s residence (bla brang) of Byams
dge gling Monastery141 of Five-Peak Mountain, on the fifteenth day of the fourth
month of the twenty-sixth year of the reign of Emperor Daoguang of the Great
Qing dynasty (1846).
To whom and where ever, the offering of this map of the holy land of the savior
Mañjuśrī is made, there and then, may unfavorable conditions be pacified and may
happiness flourish. May it be auspicious! Mangalam!142
Chinese
五臺山聖境全圖
詩曰﹕三世諸佛稱清涼，法照三界及萬方，文殊變化通凡聖，三寶諸仙
即此身，真容久在清涼境人人敬禮無所觀。大華嚴經云，東北方有處名清
涼山，從昔以來諸菩薩眾於中止住，現有菩薩名文殊師利，其眷屬諸菩薩
眾一萬人，具常在其中而演說法。又寶藏陀羅尼經云，佛告金剛密跡王言，
我滅度後於此南瞻部洲東北方，有國名大震那，其中有山，名曰五頂，文
殊童子旅行居住，為諸眾生於中說法，及有無量天龍八部圍繞供養，斯言
可審矣。此五台一小山圖，未能盡其詳細，四方善士凡朝清涼聖境，及見
此山圖，聞講菩薩靈驗妙法者，今生能消一切災難疾病，亨福亨壽，福祿
綿長，命終之後，生於有福之地，皆賴菩薩慈化而得也。古大窟圍智宗丹
巴佛之徒桑噶阿麻格，名格隆龍住，大發愿心，親手刻造比板，以施四方
善士。如有大發頭心，印此山圖者，則功德無量矣。
“Panoramic Map of the Holy Realm Wutai shan”
All Buddhas of the three ages praise the Clear and Cool [Mountain]. The dharma
illuminates the three realms and all directions. Mañjuśrī’s transformations reach
all ordinary beings and sages. The Three Treasures and all immortals are this very
person [Mañjuśrī]. Mañjuśrī’s true countenance has long dwelled in the realm of
the Clear and Cool Mountain, where people have paid respect to it without seeing
it. The Flower Garland Sūtra (avataṃsaka sūtra) says, “In a place northeast of
here, there is a certain region called the Cool and Clear Mountains. Many
bodhisattvas from olden times have calmly abided in there. Nowadays the holy
Mañjuśrī, together with a retinue of ten thousand bodhisattvas, dwells there and
preaches the dharma.” In addition, the [Mañjuśrī] Ratnagarbha-dhāraṇī Sūtra
says, “The Buddha said to the Vajra-wielding guardian bodhisattva ‘after I enter
nirvana, in the northeastern part of the Jambudvīpa, is a country called the Great
China, where there is a holy mountain called the Five Peaks, in the midst of which
the youthful Mañjuśrī roams, dwells, and preaches the dharma for the benefit of
a loaded modern political meaning into this nineteenth-century text, calling Mongolia part of China.
Chou has since revised her translation provided here.
141
This would be Cifu si (慈福寺, byams dge gling; Fig. 4, no. 21).
142
You can view this passage in Tibetan script at:
http://www.thlib.org/collections/texts/jiats/#!jiats=/06/debreczeny/b9/
.
all sentient beings. At that time innumerable gods and the Eight Classes of Beings,
together with their retinue, gather around to make offerings.’” You [the viewer]
can investigate this for yourself. This little map of Wutai shan cannot possibly
exhaust every detail of the mountain. The benefactors from all four directions who
make a pilgrimage to the sacred realm of the Clear and Cool Mountain, who see
this map of the mountain, and who listen to and recount the spiritual efficacy and
wondrous dharma of the bodhisattva, will in this life be free from all calamities
and diseases, and enjoy boundless blessings, happiness, and longevity. After this
life, they will be reborn in a blessed land. All these [benefits] can be acquired
through the bodhisattva’s merciful transformations. Therefore, the disciple of Rje
btsun dam pa of Da Khüriye [Mongolia], the engraver Monk Lhun grub (Longzhu)
from the Sengge Aimag, makes a great vow, to carve this woodblock with his own
hands in order to extend [the merit] to the benefactors of the four directions. Should
a person make the vow to print this image, they will accumulate immeasurable
merit.143
Mongolian
“Composition of the Land of Cool-Clear Mountain”
Om suvasti! I prostrate myself before the land that has been praised by all those
[Buddhas] who have vanquished the three times [past, present, and future], the
supreme teacher (bla ma), Mañjuśrī, who, with the body of one that works to
illuminate the brilliant interstices of the Triple World, reveals the form of the
Threefold Body, and before the one who assembles [in himself] the essence of the
Three Jewels. In the Flower Garland Sūtra (daihuayan jing) it is said that to the
northeast of here there is a certain land called Clear-Cool Mountain. Formerly
many bodhisattvas resided there. Now the holy Mañjuśrī, together with myriad
companion bodhisattvas, abides there preaching the dharma. Also in that dhāraṇī,
the Bagavant made the following edict to Jingang Miji Wang (金剛密跡王, rgyal
bo kyin kang me kyi; Vajrapāṇi): “After attaining Parinirvāṇa, in the northeast
interstice of the rose-apple continent there is a place known as the Five Peaks and
Passes. There resides the youthful Mañjuśrī. When he preaches the dharma for the
benefit of all living beings, innumerable gods and serpent spirits (nāga) of the
143
Wutai shan Shengjing Quantu. Shiyue: sanshi zhufo cheng qingliang, fazhao sanjie ji wanfang,
wenshu bianhua tong fansheng, sanbao zhuxian ji cishen, zhenrong jiuzai qingliangjing. Renren jingli
wu suoguan. Da Huayanjing yun, dongbei fang you chu min Qingliangshan, cong xi yi lai zhu pusa
zhongyu zhongzhi zhu, xianyou pusa ming wenshu shili, qi juanshu zhu pusa zhong yi wanren, ju chang
zai qizhong er yan shuofa. You baozang tuoluoni jing yun, fo gao jingang miji wang yan, wo miedu
hou yu ci nan zhan buzhou dongbei fang, you guoming da zhen na, qi zhong you shan, ming yue wuding,
wenshu tongzi lvxing juzhu, wei zhu zhongsheng yu zhong shuofa, ji you wuliang tianlong ba bu wei
rao gong yang, si yan ke shen’ ai. Ci wutai yi xian shan tu, wei neng jinq xiangxi, si fang shang shi fan
chao qingliang shengjing, ji jian ci shan tu, wen jiang pusa ling yan miaofa zhe, jin sheng neng xiao
yiqie zainan jibing, hen fu hen shou, fu lu mian chang, ming zhong zhi hou, sheng yu youfu zhidi, jie
lai pusa cihua ’er’ de ye. Gu da ku wei zhizong danbafo zhi tu sanga a mage, ming ge long long zhu,
da fa yuan xin, qinshou kezao ciban, yi shi sifang shangshi. Ru you dafa touxin, yin ci shantu zhe, ze
gongde wuliang yi. Translated by Wen-shing Chou. This is a corrected translation from her 2007
“Ineffible Paths” article.
eight classes, together with their retinue, perform rites of offering and respect. [In
this way] this place has been eulogized in numerous sūtras and tantras.
The sketching of this map is intended to bring salvation by arresting one’s
attachment to every sort of thing that is found as a consequence of seeing, hearing,
thinking, and touching. It was engraved and offered by the monk (gelung, dge
slong), Lhunrub, a carver of Sangga monastic community [of Amurbayasqulangtu
Monastery] and a disciple of the faithful alms-giver, the holy Jebsun Damba of
Yeke Kuriye (present day Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia). Happiness!
On the supremely good day, the 15th day of the 4th month of the 26th year [in
the reign] of Daoguang [1846] of the Great Qing dynasty.144
Published:
Chou, Wen-shing. “Ineffable Paths: Mapping Wutaishan in Qing-Dynasty
China.” Art Bulletin 89, no. 1 (March 2007): 108-129.
-
144
(1) Om suvasti. (2) γurban čaγ-un (3) ilaγuγsan bükün ber (4) sayišiyaγsan oron (5) γurban oron-u
gegen (6) ǰabsar-i geyigülün (7) üiledügči bey-e-(8)tü, γurban bey-e-yin (9) düri-yi üǰegülüg(10)či,
degedü blam-a (11) Manǰuširi, γurban (12) erdeni-yin mön činar (13) čiγuluγsan-a mörgümüi (14)
Quvayangki nom-dur (15) ögülügsen anu: Ende-(16)eče umar doron-a (17) oron nigen-dür, (18)
Tungγalaγ serigün (19) aγula kemegdekü oron (20) bui büged, uruγsida (21) olan bodisadu-a
tegün-(22)dür orošiγsan bui (23) edüge qutuγtu (24) Manǰuširi nökör (25) bodisung, tümen (26)
toγatan-luγ-a selte (27) orošiǰu nom nomlaγaǰu (28) bölöge. basa Erdeni ǰirüken (29) toγtaγal-ača, Kin
Kang-(30)mi-gi qaγan-dur ilaǰu (31) tegüs nögüčigsen ber ǰarliγ (32) bolur-un: barinirvan (33)
boluγsan-u qoyin-a Jambudib-(34)un umar doron-a yin ǰab (35) sar-dur, Tabun üǰügür (36) dabaγaγula
kemegsen bui (37) oron tegündür ǰalaγu (38) Manǰuširi orošiǰu (39) qamaγ amitan-u tusadur (40) nom
nomlaqui-dur toγo(41)laši ügei tngri (42) luus naiman ayimaγ-a (43) nökör selte-ber, ergün (44)
kündelel-i üiledkü terigü(45)ten-i olan sudur dandar-(46)ača sayišiyaγsan oron (47) egünü ǰokiyal-i
tobčilan (48) ǰiruγsan egüni üǰükü (49) sonosqu duradqu kötül(50)čiküy-yin barilduγ-a-yi (51) oluγsan,
törül tutum (52) bükün-e getülgegči metü (53) …..-daγan (54) bariqu-yin šiltaγan-dur (55) ǰoriǰu, süsüg
tegüldür (56) öglige-yin eǰeni-i Yeke (57) Küriyen-ü, boγda (58) Rǰebcun-damba-yin (59) šabi, Sengge-yin
ayimaγ (60) seyilbürči gelüng Lhunrub (61) -yin (62) asaraltu buyantu -un -tü (63) seyileǰü ergübe.
manggalam.
Dayičing ulus-un törü gereltü-yin qorin ǰurγuduγar on-u dörben sarayin arban tabun-u erkim sayin
edür-e.
Translated by Brian Baumann. Unfortunately a Mongolian Unicode font is not available at this
time to record the actual inscription here as done in Tibetan and Chinese above, so transliteration will
have to suffice.
Cat. 2: Lcang skya rol pa’i rdo rje (1717-1786)

lcang skya hu thog thu rol pa’i rdo rje
-
章嘉呼图克图若必多吉
The Lcang skya Hutukhtu Rol pa’i rdo
rje was the most influential teacher (bla
ma) of Inner Asia and China in the
eighteenth century. From childhood Rol
pa’i rdo rje was educated with the
Manchu imperial princes, and together
they studied Buddhist scripture as well as
Chinese, Mongolian, Manchu, and
Tibetan languages. This close contact
between monk and emperor from such an
early age was unprecedented, and it
allowed Rol pa’i rdo rje to take a leading
role at court. He became the emperor’s
religious teacher and trusted political
confidant, helping craft a policy toward
Tibet and Mongolia that underscored the
Manchu inheritance of Qubilai Khan’s
realm, both politically and symbolically,
through the production of religious art
China; 18th century. Gilt metal alloy; 17 cm x
12.5 cm x 8.5 cm. Jacques Marchais Museum
focusing on the image of Mañjuśrī (Fig.
of Tibetan Art (85.04.0162). 27).
Even Lcang skya rol pa’i rdo rje’s own incarnation lineage was carefully crafted
to reflect that the patron-priest relationship between Qubilai and his Tibetan
preceptor ’Phags pa (Fig. 5) was reborn, quite literally, in Qianlong and himself
(see introductory essay above). Rol pa’i rdo rje’s role in the production of Tibetan
Buddhist images is particularly interesting in light of their politically symbolic
role in the Qing court, and his own function within that same context as an
incarnation – a living object of legitimization.
Wutai shan was at the heart of the Mañjuśrī cult in China, and Rol pa’i rdo rje
was important in giving the site a Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhist identity. He
wrote a Tibetan guide to Wutai shan, which actively promoted pilgrimage to Wutai
shan among the Mongols and Tibetans. Rol pa’i rdo rje spent thirty-six consecutive
summers in meditative retreat at Taming the Ocean Monastery (Zhenhai si) on
Wutai shan, until his death there in 1786. He was buried on the mountain (Fig. 4,
no. 37; Fig. 29).
It is interesting to note that a characteristic feature, a small lymphoma-like lump
on the right side of his jaw, is not included in his official iconography or extent
paintings (see Cat. 3, top left corner). It is unusual for the physical defect of a bla
ma to appear in a portrait at all. It does, however, appear on a number of statues
like this one, and there is some evidence to suggest that the owner of such an image,
likely a member of the imperial court, had a personal relationship with him.
Published:
Lipton, Barbara, and Nima Dorjee Ragnubs. Treasures of Tibetan Art:
Collections of the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art, 84-86. Staten Island,
NY: The Museum; New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Cat. 3: Vajrabhairava (Daweide Jingang, 大威德金刚) Maṇḍala

rdo rje ’jigs byed dkyil ’khor
-
威羅瓦金剛 (大威德金剛) 壇城圖

Here the meditational deity
Vajrabhairava, a wrathful emanation of
the Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, is depicted in
his celestial palace (maṇḍala).
In the realm of art the Qianlong
emperor’s court chaplain, Lcang skya rol
pa’i rdo rje, who appears in the top-left
corner of this painting, had a guiding hand
in the formation of this imperial Buddhist
artistic style of the Qing dynasty that
would come to symbolize Manchu
rulership (Fig. 27). Rol pa’i rdo rje
produced the definitive iconographic
guides for artists, established a workshop
of thang ka painting in Beijing, and was
given oversight in the production of
Buddhist images in the imperial
workshops.145 This style is recognizable
China; 18th century. Pigments on cloth; 27.875"
by characteristics such as the pale pastel
h. x 19.25" w. Rubin Museum of Art. C2006.52.4 pink, blue, and green clouds seen here in
(HAR 65710).
145
One of Rol pa’i rdo rje’s most significant contributions to the production of religious images was
the composition and engraving of several Tibeto-Mongolian iconographic guides with his teacher
Erdeni Nomyn Khan, which were the most authoritative of the eighteenth century: the Collection of
Images of Tibetan Buddhist Deities (Lamajiao Shengxiangji, 喇嘛教聖像集) and Guide to the Sacred
Images of All the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas (Zhufo Pusa Shengxiangzan, 諸佛菩薩聖像贊), also
called simply the Guide to the Sacred Images of All the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas (sku brnyan sum
brgya) which established the Sino-Tibetan iconic forms for the next two hundred years. His own image
is interestingly enough included in this collection of images for veneration, depicting himself with the
same attributes as ’Phags pa. Not a case of self aggrandizement, this was rather in recognition of himself
as a symbol of Manchu legitimization, sublimating himself to his role as ’Phags pa incarnate, and by
extension re-affirming Qianlong in his role as Qubilai. See: Blanche Christine Olschak and Thupten
Wangyal, Mystic Art of Ancient Tibet (Boston, MA: Shambhala, 1973), no. 53; and Sushama Lohia,
Lalitavajra’s Manual of Buddhist Iconography (New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture,
1994), 98, no. 53. In his role in the production of images at court Lcang skya rol pa’i rdo rje again bears
a somewhat muted palette. The landscapes were derived from Tibetan forms that
picked up elements of Chinese painting such as the blue-green style in the early
Ming, and were by the eighteenth century recycled through a Tibetan filter back
to the Chinese court painters. Qing court thang ka remained faithful to the Tibetan
iconographic strictures while cleverly working in Chinese auspicious motifs such
as clouds in “as you wish” (ruyi, 如意) shapes.
These images were carefully used during the Qianlong emperor’s reign in the
Chinese court, which put great emphasis on the power of symbols, to bolster
Manchu legitimacy as successors to the Yuan Empire. For instance, below the
deity’s palace are arrayed the seven treasures of the universal monarch (Buddhist
ruler): the wish-granting jewel, the beautiful queen, the strong elephant, the wheel
of the law, the swift horse, the wise minister, and the brave general – all symbols
of the sacral king who rules the earth. Encircled offerings floating on clouds, such
as the seven treasures and the eight auspicious symbols seen here, are characteristic
of these eighteenth and nineteenth century Chinese productions.146
Stūpas
Cat. 4: White Stūpa
mchod rten
Arising historically from the funerary
mounds (caitya) of early Buddhism in India,
the stūpa is viewed as a physical representation
of the enlightened mind of a Buddha. Thus, the
stūpa is also an architectural symbol of wisdom.
Above the dome are thirteen gold discs
representing the stages of the enlightened mind:
from the ten bodhisattva levels to the three
stages of a Buddha, all crowned by an ornate
parasol, white crescent moon, and golden disc
of the sun. A large, stark-white stūpa at the foot
of Pusa ding Monastery, called Stupa Grove
Monastery (Tayuan si, 塔院寺), dominates the
center of the landscape of Wutai shan (Fig. 4,
no. 40) and has become an icon of the mountain
Tibet; ca. 18th century. Pigments on itself.
cloth; 37" h. x 23.25" w. Rubin Museum
-
of Art. C2006.66.25 (HAR 795).
some resemblance to ’Phags pa, who was entrusted by Qubilai Khan to establish an Imperial Buddhist
image for the Yuan dynasty, and groomed his protégé Anige for the task of its formation and the
oversight of its execution in the imperial workshops.
146
For similar paintings in the Freer-Sackler Gallery, DC see a maṇḍala of Cakrasamvara F1905.66
(HAR 69615), http://www.asia.si.edu/collections/singleObject.cfm?ObjectNumber=F1905.66 and
http://www.himalayanart.org/image.cfm?icode=69615.
Cat. 5: Large Stūpa

mchod rten
Tibet; 13th century. Copper alloy with inlays of semiprecious stones; 70" h. Rubin Museum of Art.
C2004.17.1 (HAR 65335).
Cat. 6: Stūpa
-
Cat. 7: Stūpa
-
mchod rten mchod rten
Tibet; 14th century. Metalwork; 27" h. x 10.5"

w. x 10.25" d.
-
Rubin Museum of Art. C2003.12.2 (HAR 65213).
Tibet, c. 15th century. Metalwork; 23 cm. Collection

of Nyingjei Lam (HAR 68461).
Cat. 8: Stūpa
-
Cat. 9: Stūpa
-
mchod rten mchod rten
Tibet, 18th century. Metalwork; 8.75"

-
h. x 4.375" w. x 4.375" d. Rubin Museum of Art.

-
C2006.66.635 (HAR 700057).
Tibet; ca. 13th/14th century. Copper alloy;

-
13.875" h. x 6.25" w. x 6.25" d. Rubin Museum of

Art. C2003.21.1 (HAR 65233).
Dance Masks
At the heart of the procession leading down the steps from the central monastery
on Wutai shan, Pusa ding (Fig. 4, no. 14), is a troupe of dancers wearing masks
(Fig. 36). These three masks – Mahākāla, Yama, and Deer – were prominent
characters in this dramatic performance and all can been seen in this colorful and
lively procession, which is the center of ritual activity on the map.
The Tibetan dance (cham) dance was introduced to Wutai shan in the seventeenth
century, when the mountain took on an increasingly Tibetan and Mongolian
Buddhist identity. Typically this dance was performed on Wutai shan on the
fourteenth and fifteenth days of the sixth month of the lunar calendar (which
typically falls in July) as part of a festival which marks the culmination of a
month-long assembly for worship and Buddhist teachings.147 Mongolian monks

from monasteries on Wutai shan such as Yongquan Monastery (Fig. 4, no. 33)
would assemble at Pusa ding Monastery (Fig. 4, no. 14) for the dance ritual, which
was followed by a grand procession, such as the one depicted here, leading from
the gate of Pusa ding Monastery passing through Guangzong si (Fig. 4, no. 17),
Yuanzhao si (Fig. 4, no. 66), Rāhula Temple (Fig. 4, no. 41), Shifang Hall (Fig.
4, no. 67), and ending at the Cave of Sudhana (Fig. 4, no. 69).148 Each time they
reached a monastery they recited sūtras, chant mantras, and performed. The
procession was lead by an image and the high bla ma of Wutai shan.
The small icon being paraded in a palanquin in the procession depicted in the
map appears to be Maitreya, another of the great bodhisattvas, suggesting that this
is indeed the Future Buddha (maitreya) Festival.149 First established in Tibet in
1409 by the founder of the dge lugs monastic order, Tsong kha pa (1357-1419),
the Maitreya Festival was then brought to Mongolia in 1657 by the first Mongolian
incarnation, the Rje btsun dam pa Zanabazar where it became extremely popular.
Zanabazar himself visited Wutai shan in 1695 in the company of the Kangxi
emperor (and may have something to do with its establishment on Wutai as well).150
The choice of depicting this particular festival as the ritual center of the map
reinforces an attempt by its maker to assert a Mongolian Dge lugs ethnic sectarian
identity to the site. The figures carrying the Maitreya sculpture on the map wear
yellow robes with orange trim, which Tuttle identifies as the color coding used as
an ethnic marker of Chinese practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism, suggesting a strong
Chinese participation in these rituals as well.
-
147
See Zhao Peicheng, “Shitan Wutai shan zangchuan fojiao yu jingangshenwu,” 40; and Wang Bin
and Guo Chengwen, “Wutai shan jingang wu ji lamam miao daochang” [Buddhist Monastery Rites
and Vajra Dance at Mt. Wutai], Wutai shan yanjiu, 33. Also see Charleux, “Mongol Pilgrimages to
Wutai Shan in the Late Qing Dynasty.”
148
Zhao Peicheng, “Shitan Wutai shan zangchuan fojiao yu jingangshenwu,” 40; Wang Bin and
Guo Chengwen, “Wutai shan jingang wu ji lamam miao daochang,” 33.
149
Chou, “Ineffable Paths,” 119. This festival is also called Mañjuśrī’s birthday; see for instance
Charleux (“Mongol Pilgrimages to Wutai Shan in the Late Qing Dynasty”), who identified the image
in the palanquin as Mañjuśrī.
150
Dharmatāla, Rosary of White Lotuses, in Phur lcog ngag dbang byams ba, Grwa sa chen po bzhi
dang rgyud pa stod smad chags tshul pad dkar ’phreng bo bzhugs (Lhasa: Tibetan Peoples Publishing
House, 1989), 339.
Cat. 10: Deer Mask

-
Cat. 11: Bull-Head Yama Lord of Death Mask
-
sha ba
-
gshin rje chos rgyal
-
Shava Choijil Erlig qagan
Mongolia; 20th century. Papier-mâché;

Mongolia; 19th-20th century. Papier-mâché; -
21" h. x 14.75" w. x 10.5" d.

19.25" h. x 15.5" w. x 14" d. -
C2006.52.10 (HAR 65716).

C2006.54.2 (HAR 65723).
Cat. 12: Mahākāla Mask

mgon po nag po
-
Maqagala
Mongolia; 19th-20th century.

Papier-mâché; 9" h. x 14" w. x 17.5" d.
C2006.55.1 (HAR 65721).
-
Ritual Life
Cat. 13: Buddha Footprints
zhabs rjes
-
釋迦如來雙跡靈相圖
This woodblock print would have been
a relatively affordable image that a
Mongol might have brought back as a
souvenir from his pilgrimage to Wutai
shan. From the Tibetan text we know that
the original woodblock for this image was
carved at Pusa ding Monastery (map no.
14). From the Chinese text we learn that
the imperially appointed overseer of
Wutai shan, the great teacher Ngag dbang
blo bzang (Awang Laozang, 阿王老藏,
1601-1687), donated the money to paint
and publish this image. This famous and
important Mongolian monk from one of
Beijing’s most prominent Tibetan
Buddhist monasteries was both Pusa
Pusa ding Monastery, Wutai shan, China; 17th ding’s abbot and manager of Tibetan and
century (ca. 1659-1668). Woodblock with
pigments on cloth; 22.5" h. x 17.5" w. Rubin
Chinese Buddhist affairs at Wutai shan.
Museum of Art. C2006.66.438 (HAR 894). He held this office from 1659 to 1668,
allowing us to closely date the carving of
the original woodblock to the early second half of the seventeenth century.
The Tibetan colophon which runs along the bottom of this piece reads:
These footprints are the footprints of the Bhagavān (the Buddha) at the time
of his nirvāṇa. Having been brought from India to Five-Peak Mountain, [this
image] was carved on an auspicious day at Pusa ding. May it be auspicious!151
These two woodblock prints were likely based on the “Buddha Footprint Stele”
(Fozu bei, 佛足碑) dated to 1582 (Ming Wanli renwu qiu, si seng you’an tu ke shi
[明萬歷壬午秋，寺僧又按图刻石]) that once sat to the left of the Great White
Stūpa at Wutai shan (Fig. 4, no. 40), which contains a longer explanatory inscription
recorded in the local gazetteer, the Record of Clear and Cool Mountain.152 The
151
zhabs rje ’di bcom ldan ’das myang ngan la bda’ dus kyis zhabs rje yin rgya kar nas rib o rtse
lngar gdan drangs nas tshes grangs bzang po la phu sa ’eng na spar du bskos ba yin/ dge’o//
mangalam//.
152
See Zhencheng (1546-1617), Qingliang shan zhi, 29-30, which mentions autumn of 1582 (the
ren wu year [tenth year] of the Wanli era [Ming Wanli renwu qiu, 明万历壬午秋]). The Gazetteer
entry, which follows the entry for the Great White Stūpa reads (discrepancies between the RMA image
text and the gazetteer/stele are highlighted in yellow): 佛足碑在大塔左侧。按《西域記》云，摩
Chinese text between the footprints on this object appears to be a condensed version
of that same text, which reads:
According to the Record of Travels to Western Lands (Xiyu ji, 西域記):153 “In
a temple of the city of Pāṭaliputra, in the [ancient Indian] Kingdom of Magadha
there is a great stone, where the Tathāgata Śākyamuni tread, a pair footprints
appear to remain, one foot (chi) eight inches (cun) long and six inches wide, both
[adorned] with thousand-spoke wheel sign,154 on all ten toes appear to flower
swastika,155 and the shape of the treasure vase, fish, and sword.156 The Tathāgata
of the past traveled to Kuśinagara City,157 prepared to show/demonstrate nirvāṇa
(death), looked back [to Magadha and stamped his foot on] this stone, and told
Ānanda saying: “I, now at the very end [of my life], leave behind this footprint,
[in order to] teach sentient beings of the latter days of this Buddha-kalpa (the age
of the decline of the dharma). For those who are able to see [it will generate great]
faith. To those who supply worship and make offerings: it will end the suffering
竭陀國波吒釐精舍中有大石，釋迦佛所遗雙足迹，其長一尺六寸，廣六寸，千輻輪相，十指
皆現，華文卍字，寶瓶魚劍之状，光明炳焕。昔佛北趣拘尸那城，将示寂滅，回顧摩竭陀國，
蹈此石上，告阿難言﹕“吾今最後，留此足跡，以示眾生。有能見者，生大信心，贍禮供養，
滅無量罪，常生佛前。云云。后外道辈嫉心除之愈显。如是八番，文彩如故。”唐贞观中，
玄奘法师自西域图写持歸，太宗敕令刻石祖庙，以福邦家。至明万历壬午秋。少林嗣祖沙门
威县明成、德州如意，一夕一梦莲花，一梦月轮现于塔际。既觉，各言所梦，异之。及晓，
少室僧正道持佛足图贻之。及展，见是双轮印相，喜曰：“此梦真也。”遂倾囊，兼募众立
石，时孟秋既望也。是夕，众闻空中珠佩杂乐之声。出户视之，神灯点点，此圣神嘉赞也。
镇澄赞：“巍巍大雄，浩劫忘功。神超化外，迹云寰中。刹尘混入，念劫融通。开兹觉道，
扇以真风，竭诸有海，烁彼空濛。岩中留影，石上遗踪。碎身作宝，永益群首。稽首佛陀，
悲愿何穷。 Fo zu bei zai data zuoce. An <Xiyueji> yun, mojietuo guo bozha’ao jingshe zhong you
dashi, shijiafo suo yi shuangzu ji, qi chang yichi liu cun, guang liucun, qian fu lun xiang, shi zhi jiexian,
huawen ̈ zi, baoping yujian zhi zhuang, guangming bing huan. Xi fo bei qu ju shi na cheng, jiang shi
jimie, huigu mojietuo guo, dao ci shi shang, gao A’nan yan: “wu jin zuihou, liu ci zuji, yi shi zhongsheng.
You neng jian zhe, sheng da xingxin, zhanli gongyang, mie wuliang zui, chang sheng fo qian. Yun
yun. Hou wai dao bei ji xin chu zhi yu xian. Ru shi ba fan, wen cai ru gu. ” Tang Zhenguan zhong,
Xuanzang fashi zi xiyu tu xie chi gui, Taizong ji ling ke shi zumiao, yi fu bang jia. Zhi min Wanli
renwu qiu. Shaolin sizu shamenwei xian Mincheng, Dezhou Ruyi, yi xi yi meng lianhua, yi meng yue
lun xian yu ta ji. Ji jue, ge yan suo meng, yi zhi. Ji xiao, shao zhi seng zhengdao chi fozutu yizhi. Jizhan,
jian shi shuanglun yinxiang, xi yue: “ci meng zhen ye.” Sui qin nang, jian mo zhong li shi, shi meng
qiu ji wang ye. Shi xi, zong wen kong zhong zhu pei za yue zhi sheng. Chu hu shi zhi, shen deng dian
dian, ci shengshen jia zhan ye. Zhencheng zan: “wei wei da xiong, hao jie wang gong. Shen chao hua
wai, ji yun huan zhong. Sha chun hun ru, nian jie rong tong. Kai zi jue dao, shan yi zhen feng, jie zhu
you hai, shuo bi kong meng. Yan zhong liu ying, shi shang ji zong. Sui shen zuo bao, yong yi qun shou.
Ji shou fotuo, bei yuan he qiong. Also see: Siegbert Hummel, “Die Fusspur des Gautama-Buddha auf
dem Wu-T’ai-Shan,” Asiatische Studien /Etudes Asiatiques 25 (1971): 389-406.
153
Xuanzang (玄奘), Datang xiyu ji (大唐西域記). Xuanzang’s (c. 596-664) record of his
seventeen-year long trip to India, where he went to study and gather Buddhist scriptures. Written in
646 at the behest of the emperor, Xuanzang’s journey through over one hundred and thirty-eight states
in Central Asia and India, remains one of our most valuable records of those regions in the seventh
century.
154
Sahasrāra, cakra-caraṇatā: the second of the thirty-two marks (lakṣaṇa) of a great personage or
perfected being.
155
The fourth of the auspicious signs in the footprint of Buddha.
156
The four kinds of minor marks found on the feet among the eighty minor marks of a Tathāgata.
157
An ancient kingdom and city, near Kasiah, one hundred eighty miles north of Patna; the place
where Śākyamuni died.
of inconceivable cycles of life and death (saṃsāra), they will be constantly [re-]
born as men and gods in the favorable stages (of rebirth), they will have happiness
and prolonged life, they will be far from all evil deeds, and they will always obtain
good fortune.” [From] Dharma Master Xuan Zang’s Travels to Western Lands
[this image and writing] were requested to be engraved in stone and offerings
were made. The imperially appointed Overseer of Wutai shan, the great bla ma,
Ngag dbang blo bzang (1601-1687) donated money to paint and publish it.158
Published:
Selig-Brown, Kathryn. Eternal Presence: Handprints and Footprints in Buddhist
Art. Katonah Museum of Art, 2004, 64.
Cat. 14: Buddha Footprints

zhabs rjes
-
釋迦如來雙跡靈相圖
The Buddha’s footprints were akin to a touch
relic, a portable form of transmitted blessing,
which could stand in for the presence of the absent
Buddha. According to the Chinese inscription on
the nearly identical footprint image (see Cat no.
13), these were modeled on stone Buddha
footprints brought back to China from the ancient
Indian Kingdom of Magadha by the renowned
Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang in the seventh century.
The Buddha’s footprints were often carved on
stone tablets in front of Chinese temples and
appear at several places on the map of Wutai shan
along pilgrimage pathways.
Tibet or Mongolia; 19th century.

Pigments on cloth; 40.75" h. x
30.375" w. x 2.25" d. Rubin Museum
of Art. C2003.37.1 (HAR 65259).
158
按《西域記》云，摩竭陀國波吒釐精舍中有大石，釋迦如來所履，雙跡猶存，其長一尺
八寸，廣六寸，俱有千輻輪相，十指皆現，華文卍字，寶瓶魚劍之状。昔者如來趣拘尸那城，
将示寂滅，回顧此石，告阿難曰﹕“吾今最後，留此足跡，示末世眾生。若得親見，信心。
贍禮供養者，滅無量生死重罪，常生人天勝處，福壽延年，遠諸惡事，常獲吉祥。”玄裝法
師西域請來刻石供養。欽命總理五臺山大喇嘛阿王老藏捐貲畫利。 An <Xiyueji> yun, mojietuo
guo bozha’ao jingshe zhong you dashi, Shijia Rulai suolv, shuangji you cun, qi chang yichi bacun,
guang liucun, ju you qian fu lun xiang, shizhi jiexian, huawen ̈ zi, baoping yujian zhi zhuang. Xi zhe
Rulai qu ju shi na cheng, jiang shi jimie, huigu cishi, gao Anan yue: “wu jin zuihou, liu ci zuji, shi mo
shi zhongsheng. Ruo de qinjian, xingxin. Zhan li gongyang zhe, mie wuliang shengsi zhongzui,
changsheng ren tian sheng chu, fu shou yan nian, yuan zhu e shi, chang huo ji xiang.” Xuanzang fashi
zi xiyu qing lai keshi gongyang. Qin ming zongli Wutai shan dalama Awang Laozang juan ci hua li.
Thanks to Wang Yudong for his help in correcting my transcription and translation of this abraded
text.
Other surviving examples of such

footprint stele can be found in temples
and monasteries throughout China such
as at Ciyun si (慈雲寺) on Qinglong
Mountain (Qinglong shan, 青龍山) in
Henan Province (河南; see Fig. 39); a
stele at Shaolin Temple (Shaolin si, 少林
寺) dated to the Mongol Yuan period
(1318); and a stele at Crouching Dragon
Temple (Wolong si, 卧龍寺) in Xi’an
dated to the Chinese Ming period
(fifteenth year of the Hongwu reign;
1382).
This image may be painted over a
woodblock print, similar to the footprints
(Cat. 13), by a Mongolian artist.
Published:
Selig-Brown, Kathryn. Eternal
Presence: Handprints and Footprints in
Figure 39. “The Spirit-Likeness of the Tathagata
Sakyamuni’s Feet” Stele. (Shijia rulai shuang Buddhist Art. Katonah Museum of Art,
ji ling xiang tu 釋迦如來雙跡靈相圖). Ciyun 2004, 65.
-
si 慈雲寺, Qinglong Mountain, Henan Province.

Cat. 15: Mkhas grub’s Vision of His Teacher Tsong kha pa

mkhas grub rje dge legs dpal bzang po
Looking upward at a vision, Mkhas
grub (1385-1438) holds a symbolic
offering of the universe (maṇḍala),
constructed of precious substances, to his
teacher, the Lord Tsong kha pa
(1357-1419), who floats above on a cloud
bank mounted atop an elephant. This
painting depicts one of the five visions
that the student Mkhas grub had of his
teacher after his death.159 This same scene
appears at the top right of the map of
Wutai shan (Fig. 40), where the elephant
that Tsong kha pa rides has become part
of the clouds that support him.
The inscription below reads:
The venerable King of Dharma, Tsong

kha pa, who bestowed the empowerment
and instructions of Vajrabhairava on
Mkhas grub dge legs dpal, who cleared
away the faults/interpolations in the ritual
texts for service and worship of Six-armed
Central Tibet; 18th century. Pigments on cloth;
16 x 27 in. Lent by the Collection of Shelley and Mahākāla.
160
Donald Rubin (HAR 56).

Corresponding to this inscription
(visually documenting this transmission and reinforcing the teacher-student
relationship), Vajrabhairava, whose teachings Tsong kha pa bestowed on his student
Mkhas grub, floats above him at top right. One of the main Dge lugs protectors,
Six-armed Mahākāla, whose worship Mkhas grub especially promoted and is
therefore also mentioned in the inscription, appears at bottom left.
159
This painting is part of a larger set depicting the previous incarnations of the Paṇ chen bla ma,
one of the main hierarchs of the Dge lugs monastic order. On this composition also see Giuseppe Tucci,
Tibetan Painted Scrolls, I and II (rpt. Kyoto: Rinsen Book Co., 1980), 414.
160
rje btsun chos kyi rgyal po tsong kha pas/ rdo rje ’jigs byed dbang dang gdams pa gnang/ phyag
drug mgon po bsnyen bsgrub be bum la/ lhad zhugs bsal mdzad mkhas grub dge legs dpal//.
The founder of the Dge lugs monastic

order, Tsong kha pa, who was himself
considered a Tibetan emanation of
Mañjuśrī, can be found everywhere on
the map of Wutai shan, including the five
visions of him emanating on clouds from
each of the mountain’s five peaks (Fig.
4, nos. 2, 9, 11, 18, 28). In his secret
biography Tsong kha pa tells Mkhas grub
that he has emanations on Wutai, and may
be related to this tradition of depicting
Mañjuśrī as Tsong kha pa on the
mountain.161 The Mongols were militant
followers of the Dge lugs, the monastic
order of the Dalai Lama, and this map
asserts not only a Tibetan and Mongolian
Buddhist religious identity on Wutai shan Figure 40. Mkhas grub’s vision of Tsong kha
but, more specifically in this case, a Dge pa. 1846 Wutai shan map, top right detail.
lugs identity. Through this imagery, the map declares a sectarian religious vision
of the mountain.
Published:
Rhie, Marylin, and Robert Thurman. Worlds of Transformation: Tibetan Art of
Wisdom and Compassion. New York: Tibet House, 1999, Cat 127, 355-57.
Nepalese Roots
For Tibetans the idea that Wutai shan is the earthly abode of Mañjuśrī has its source
in Nepal. A famous legend tells that Vipashwi Buddha planted seeds in a lake that
grew into a great jeweled lotus that emitted light. From far away in China, on the
highest peak of Wutai shan, Mañjuśrī saw this beacon. Observing that beings were
unable to reach this relic of Vipashwi Buddha in the middle of a lake, Mañjuśrī
cut a gorge with his sword, Candrahas, to drain the water, forming the Kathmandu
Valley. A stūpa was built over this relic, which was originally called Mañjuśrī
Stūpa (mañju-caitya), and later renamed Svāyambhū, one of the greatest Buddhist
sacred sites in Nepal. Mañjuśrī was inspired by this relic to cut his hair and become
an ascetic, and it is said that the lice that lived in his hair became monkeys, an
animal for which this site is famous.
161
It is possible that the five forms of Mañjuśrī may be related to Tsong kha pa’s five visions of
Mañjuśrī.
Cat. 16: Svāyambhū Stūpa

The presence of Mañjuśrī at middle
left and the monkey at the bottom left
likely identifies this as the famous
Svāyambhū Stūpa of the Kathmandu
Valley. Mañjuśrī permeates Nepalese
society and rituals, in this case the
depiction of the Chariot Ritual
(bhīmarata), the birthday celebration for
a Nepalese elder of Kathmandu.
Published:
Mullin, Glenn H., and Jeff Watt.
Female Buddhas: Women of
Enlightenment in Tibetan Mysticism.
Rubin Museum of Art, Clear Light: Santa
Fe, 2003, 110.
Nepal; 18th century. Répoussé copper; 17.5" h.

x 11.5" w. x 3.75" d.
-
Rubin Museum of Art. C2006.66.63 (HAR

700095).
Cat. 17: Mañjuśrī

This unusual Nepalese form of
Mañjuśrī can be identified by his five tufts
of hair, the distinctive “tiger claw” shape
of his necklace, and the small seed or
jewel that he holds in his left hand. The
similar small silver Nepalese sculpture
with nearly identical attributes nearby
confirms the identity of this figure.
Nepal; 10th century. Gilt copper alloy; 13" h.

x 9" w. x 7" d.
-
Rubin Museum of Art. C2006.71.5 (HAR 65758).


This small, elegant Nepalese sculpture
of Mañjuśrī is identified by his
characteristic five tufts of hair and
distinctive “tiger claw”-shaped necklace.
Published:
Weldon, David, and Jane Casey
Singer. The Sculptural Heritage of Tibet:
Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam
Collection. London: Laurence King
Publishing, 1999, 70.
Nepal; 12th century. Silver with gilding; 3.75"

h. x 1.875" w. x 1.25" d.
-
Long-term loan from the Collection of Nyingjei

Lam (HAR 68439).
Early Nepalese Style, c. 12th Century.

Metalwork. Height: 8.5 cm. Collection
of Nyingjei Lam (HAR 68441).
Published: Weldon, David, and Jane Casey Singer. The Sculptural Heritage of
Tibet: Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam Collection. London: Laurence King
Cat. 20: Seated Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī

’jam dpal dbyangs
This unusual and stately form of
Mañjuśrī, the bodhisattva who is believed
to dwell at Wutai shan, is identifiable by
his Nepalese iconography, including the
small seed or jewel that he holds in his
right hand, and the distinctive “tiger
claw”-shaped necklace he wears.
Published:
Weldon, David, and Jane Casey
Singer. The Sculptural Heritage of Tibet:
Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam
Publishing, 1999, 88-89.
Nepal; circa 10th century. Metalwork; 45 cm.

Lam (HAR 68446).
Cat. 21: The Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī-Ghoṣa)

’jam dpal dbyangs
While this painting of The Glorious One with
a Melodious Voice is Tibetan, aesthetically it
closely follows Nepalese conventions, such as a
rich red palette and symmetrical schematic
composition, which were for many centuries the
guiding artistic force in Tibet. The beautiful
shimmer in this painting’s red is due to the build
up of arsenic in the ground mineral pigments.
At the bottom-right corner is a Tibetan monastic
figure, either the commissioner of the work or the
intended recipient of the merit generated by its
production.
Tibet; 13th-14th century. Pigments
Published:
on cloth; 19.75" h. x 15.75" w. Rubin
Museum of Art. C2006.66.163 (HAR
154).
Rhie, Marylin M., and Robert A. F. Thurman. Worlds of Transformation: Tibetan

Art of Wisdom and Compassion. New York: Tibet House, 1999, 30 and 31, no.
30.
Cat. 22: White Mañjuśrī Cat. 23: Mañjuśrī Nāmasaṃgīti
Nepal; 18th century Gilt alloy; répoussé; 7"

high.
-
Rubin Museum of Art. C2006.66.60 (HAR

Nepal; 14th century. Copper alloy; 2.75" h. x 1.75" 700069).
w. x 1" d.
-
C2006.23.1 (HAR 65655).


Published: Weldon, David, and Jane
Casey Singer. The Sculptural Heritage of
Tibet: Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam
Nepal, 13th-14th century Metalwork. Height:

6.5 cm. Collection of Nyingjei Lam (HAR
68442).
The Three Mañjuśrī of Tibet

Three great Buddhist scholars from different monastic orders in Tibet – Sa skya
paṇḍita (1182-1251) of the Sa skya school, Klong chen pa (1308-1363) of the
Rnying ma school, and Tsong kha pa (1357-1419) of the Dge lugs school – are
known as the “Three Mañjuśrī of Tibet,” believed to be emanations of the
Bodhisattva of Wisdom on Earth. All three of these teachers have Mañjuśrī’s
characteristic attributes, the sword and the book, which sit on utpala blossoms at
their shoulders and identify these people with the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, Mañjuśrī.
The sword metaphorically cleaves through the dark clouds of ignorance and the
text is the Book of Transcendental Wisdom (prajñāpāramitā sūtra).
-
Cat. 25: Sa skya paṇḍita Kun dga’ rgyal mtshan (1182-1251) and Chos rgyal
’phags pa
sa skya paṇḍi ta kun dga’ rgyal mtshan
One of Tibet’s greatest scholars, Sa
skya paṇḍita Kun dga’ rgyal mtshan
(1182-1251), was considered an
emanation of Mañjuśrī, the Bodhisattva
of Wisdom, on Earth. Sa skya paṇḍita was
one of the most influential
thirteenth-century Tibetan figures said to
have visited Wutai shan during his trip to
the Mongol court in the thirteenth
century.162 At Wutai shan he is supposed
to have written many famous letters
giving philosophical and spiritual advice,
which he sent back to Tibet. He also
composed many prayers that extolled the
virtues of Mañjuśrī and the mountain and
helped promote Tibetan interest in the
pilgrimage site.
In this painting Sa skya paṇḍita is
accompanied by his nephew Chos rgyal
Central Tibet; 18th century. Pigments on cloth;
31.25" h. x 22.25" w. Rubin Museum of Art.
’phags pa blo gros rgyal mtshan
C2006.66.23 (HAR 695).
(1235-1280), who visited Wutai shan
repeatedly. The historical record is clearer regarding Chos rgyal ’phags pa’s visits
to Wutai shan, where he spent several years composing texts that eulogized Mañjuśrī
and the mountain. ’Phags pa’s poetry of Wutai shan was some of the most
influential, such as his one-hundred verse poem: “The Garland of Jewels: Praise
to Mañjuśrī at Five-Peak Mountain,” written in 1257.
-
162
For a brief discussion of the historicity of Sa skya paṇḍita visiting Wutai shan, see above essay
and footnote 40.
Cat. 26: Sa skya paṇḍita Kun dga’ rgyal mtshan (1182-1251)

sa skya paṇḍi ta kun dga’ rgyal mtshan
This figure is identified by inscription
on the front of the sculpture as the great
Sa skya scholar Sa skya paṇḍita. His hat
is a shoulder-length cloth cap modeled
on the hats worn by Indian Learned men
(paṇḍita).
Tibet; 16th century. Gilt copper alloy with

pigment; 7" h. x 4" w. x 4.25" d. Rubin Museum
of Art. C2005.16.37 (HAR 65460).
Cat. 27: Klong chen pa dri med ’od zer (1308-1363)

klong chen pa dri med ’od zer
Klong chen pa dri med ’od zer, the second
major Tibetan emanation of Mañjuśrī, was a
prolific author and systematizer of early
Rnying ma contemplative literature. He is most
famous for his wide-ranging commentaries,
known as the “Seven Treasuries.” He was
pivotal in the history of the Rnying ma
tradition, emphasizing a blend of rigorous
academic scholarship and meditation. The
figure seated directly below Klong chen pa is
the famous teacher ’Jam dbyangs mkhyen rtse
dbang po (b. 1819), one of the founders of the
non-sectarian (rigs med) movement, allowing
us to date this painting to the nineteenth
century.
Published:
Tibet; 19th century. Pigments on cloth;
15" h. x 10.25" w. Rubin Museum of Art.
F1998.9.2 (HAR 631).

Art of Wisdom and Compassion. New York: Tibet House, 1999, Cat 69, 258-59.
Cat. 28: Tsong kha pa (1357-1419)

rje tsong kha pa blo bzang grags pa
Tsong kha pa was the founder of the
Dge lugs school of Tibetan Buddhism,
which would come to wield great
religious and political influence
throughout Inner Asia in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries among the
Tibetans, Mongols, and Manchus alike.
He was considered an emanation of the
Bodhisattva of Wisdom, Mañjuśrī,
indicated by the sword and book
prominently displayed on utpala flowers
at his shoulders. The influence of his
school of Buddhism was profound, and
he can, therefore, be found everywhere
on the map of Wutai shan in this
exhibition.
A Tibetan inscription sewn on the back
of this textile states that this cloth image
of Mañjuśrī (manifested as Tsong kha pa)
was given to the Geshé Sudhi by “the lady
Wutai shan, China; after 1805. Appliquéd silks; of noble lineage, the jewel-holding
h. 77½ in, w. 44 in (ca 6.46 x 3.6 feet). Newark
protectoress.” The patron who
Museum, Gift of Henry H. Wehrhene, 1942
(42.198). commissioned this object was the elder
sister of a monk named Jams dpal rdo rje
studying at one of the great Dge lugs monasteries outside of Lha sa, ’Bras spungs.
The inscription stipulates that this image was to be placed in the Nor bzang Cave
(nor bzang sgrub phug), known in Chinese as the Cave of Sudhana (Shancai dong,
善財洞; Fig. 4, no. 69) at Wutai shan, together with the stūpa of the remains of
the master Jñāna.
Published:
Reynolds, Valrae. “A Sino-Mongolian-Tibetan Buddhist Appliqué in the Newark
Museum.” Orientations (April 1990): 32-38.
Reynolds, Valrae. From the Sacred Realm: Treasures of Tibetan Art from the
Newark Museum. Munich; New York: Prestel, 1999, 194-98.
-
Cat. 29: Tsong kha pa (1357-1419)

rje tsong kha pa blo bzang grags pa
Tsong kha pa is presented in this
sculpture with his common attributes –
monastic robes, hands forming a teaching
gesture, and a sword and book above the
shoulders. His pointed yellow hat (see
Cat. 28) is often realized in sculptures by
a textile hat placed on the head.
While Tsong kha pa was never known
to have visited Wutai shan himself,
because he was considered an emanation
of the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, Mañjuśrī,
and the founder of the Dge lugs monastic
order to which the Mongols and Manchu
rulers were particularly devoted, visions
of him as Mañjuśrī can be found all over
Tibet; 16th century. Metalwork; 7 cm. the mountain, such as in Cat. nos. 1, 15,
Lam (HAR 68479).
and 28.
Published:
Weldon, David, and Jane Casey Singer. The Sculptural Heritage of Tibet:
Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam Collection. London: Laurence King Publishing,
1999, 144-47.
The Book of Transcendental Wisdom

The Book of Transcendental Wisdom is one of the earliest recorded discourses in
Indian Buddhism, dating to the first to second century CE. The teaching is conveyed
mainly through dialogue between the Buddha and his major followers, and a special
emphasis is given to the role of the bodhisattva, someone who aspires to attain
enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. These teachings of the Buddha were
believed to be too profound at the time to be understood properly, and so this text
was handed over for safe keeping to the king of serpent spirits (nāga) to await a
more propitious time. These teachings on the nature of wisdom were kept in the
king’s underwater realm for many years until he bestowed this book on the worthy
scholar, the great Indian philosopher Nāgārjuna, as foretold by prophecy.
The Book of Transcendental Wisdom is seen as the source of wisdom that
Mañjuśrī later came to embody, and thus, this bodhisattva became closely associated
with the text.
-
Cat. 30: Illustrated Eight Thousand-Verse Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra

’phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa brgyad stong pa
The Book of Transcendental Wisdom
(prajñāpāramitā sūtra) is the text almost
always depicted with Mañjuśrī, typically
at his left shoulder. It is not simply an
idealized symbol of wisdom but an actual
book containing philosophical discourse
and narrative content.
Several figures depicted in this text are
Tibet; 20th century. Woodblock print on paper.
considered emanations of Mañjuśrī, such
Rubin Museum of Art. LHM2006.35.1. (HAR
79625). as Khri srong lde btsan (740-798) – on
the right side of the page holding book and sword – the Tibetan emperor who
established Buddhism as the official religion of the Tibetan state and built Tibet’s
first monastery, Bsam yas.
The earliest Tibetan contact with Wutai shan was said to have been through the
Indian siddha Pha dam pa sangs rgyas – on the left side of the page with his knees
held up by a meditation strap – who lived for many years in Tibet, gathering many
Tibetan disciples, and also spent twelve years on Wutai shan in the late eleventh
century.
Many Tibetans believe that the Sixth Dalai Lama Tshangs dbyangs rgya mtsho
(1683-1706/1746; Fig. 35) – on the right side of the page holding up a flower – a
popular and controversial historical figure who was supposed to have been executed,
secretly lived out his days in meditation in a cave at Wutai shan (Fig. 4, no. 63).
His cave became an important focus of pilgrimage in its own rite.
Published:
Linrothe, Rob. Holy Madness: Portraits of Tantric Siddhas. New York: Rubin
Museum of Art and Serindia Publications, 2006, Cat. No. 77.
-
Cat. 31: Book Cover
Tibet; 13th century Pigment of wood; 11.625"

h. x 29" w. x 1.5" d. Rubin Museum of Art.
C2006.27.1 (HAR 65641).
Cat. 32: Book Cover
Tibet; 14th century. Pigment on wood. Rubin

Museum of Art. F1998.13.3 (HAR 700049).
Cat. 33: Book Cover
Tibet; 14th century. Wood; 10.375" h. x 28.75"

w. x 1" d. Rubin Museum of Art (HAR 700096).
Cat. 34: Book Cover

w. x 0.443" d. Rubin Museum of Art (HAR
700102).
Cat. 35: Book Cover

w. x 1.125" d. Rubin Museum of Art (HAR
700103).
Cat. 36: Nāga King
Nepal; 18th century. Metal; 24" h. x 13.5" w. x

4" d. Rubin Museum of Art C2004.37.1 (HAR
65392).
Forms of Mañjuśrī
Mañjuśrī is one of the most important bodhisattvas in the Buddhist pantheon, the
patron deity of wisdom, education, composition, and memory. He represents the
wisdom of all the Buddhas of the ten directions and the three times, and can manifest
in different forms depending on the circumstances. Typically, Mañjuśrī is depicted
as a beautiful youth wielding a flaming sword that cuts through the ignorance that
obscures the true nature of reality and binds beings to a cycle of suffering. In his
left hand he holds a book, the Book of Transcendental Wisdom, both the source
and embodiment of his awakened understanding.
Wutai shan is defined as Mañjuśrī’s abode on Earth by the five unique forms
of Mañjuśrī that are said to dwell, one each, on its five peaks. This arrangement
of Wutai shan comes out of the Mañjuśrī astrological system that explains the
origins of the world and arranges the mountain’s five peaks into a cosmic diagram
(maṇḍala), with each peak placed in a cardinal direction and assigned a
corresponding primary color associated with one of the five Buddha realms.
North Peak: Stainless Mañjuśrī (vimala)
West Peak: Mañjuśrī Central Peak: Mañjuśrī wielding a sword East Peak Four-armed
seated on a lion (mañjuśrī nātha) Mañjuśrī (mañjughoṣa
(vādisiṁha) tikṣṇa)
South Peak: White Mañjuśrī (jñānasattva)
Cat. 37: Indian Teachers Nāgārjuna and Āryadeva

’phags pa klu sgrub
This painting depicts a serpent spirit
offering the great philosopher Nāgārjuna
the Book of Transcendental Wisdom from
his watery realm, while his student
Āryadeva looks on. This same scene
appears in the lower left-hand corner of
the adjacent painting.
Above, a luminous White Mañjuśrī
hangs in the center of the sky like an
autumn moon, while floating down on a
diagonal trail of clouds is another form
of Mañjuśrī, riding a shaggy Chinese lion,
which is associated with the Mañjuśrī
emanations at Wutai shan (Fig. 2).
This simple and open composition,
with sparing use of pigment and with
other Chinese visual conventions such as
the stand of bamboo framing the figures
Eastern Tibet; 19th century. Pigments on cloth;
to the left, is a worthy transmitter of Si tu
23 x 15 in. Rubin Museum of Art. C2006.66.167 paṇ chen’s painting style.
(HAR 174).
Published:
Art of Wisdom and Compassion. New York: Tibet House, 1999, No. 40, p. 212.
-

’jam dpal dbyangs
This is a non-iconic form of Mañjuśrī
commissioned by the innovative
scholar-painter Si tu paṇ chen
(1700-1774) as part of his “Eight Great
Bodhisattva” set.163 One of Si tu paṇ
chen’s greatest artistic legacies was his
role in designing simple open painting
compositions such as this one.
Normally with an orange color one
would expect Mañjuśrī to be energetically
wielding his sword, as in Cat. 39. Instead,
Situ chose the simple grace of a relaxed
pose over the rippling water of a lotus
pond, which imbues this image with a
quiet contemplative feeling.
Published:
Jackson, David. “Some Karma
From Situ’s set of Eight Great Bodhisattvas.
Kagyupa Paintings in the Rubin
Eastern Tibet; 18th century. Pigments on cloth;
Collection.” In Worlds of Transformation:
33 x 20 in. (83.82 x 50.8 cm). Rubin Museum of
Art. F1997.40.6 (HAR 587). Tibetan Art of Wisdom and Compassion,
ed. Rhie and Thurman. New York: Tibet
House, and Harry Abrams, 1999, 103, Plate 10.
Jackson, David. Patron & Painter: Situ Panchen and the Revival of the
Encampment Style. NY: Rubin Museum of Art, 2009, p, 11.
-
163
In 1732 Si tu set up a workshop for painters and had the artist Phrin las rab ’phel of Kar shod
trace and sketch older painting(s) of the Eight Great Bodhisattvas originally painted by the great artist
Dkon mchog phan bde of E. Dkon mchog phan bde was a painter of the Sman ris school who had been
active over one century earlier as court artist of the Ninth Karma pa and teacher of Nam mkha’ bkra
shis, founder of the Encampment painting tradition. The tracings of his paintings were then painted by
artists from Kar shod at Si tu’s request. Not only does this set point to the existence of strong Chinese
figural and compositional elements in pre-Encampment style painting in the court of the Ninth Karma
pa in the sixteenth century but also indicates what kind of models Si tu selected in the revival of this
artistic style. See David Jackson, Patron & Painter: Situ Panchen and the Revival of the Encampment
Style (New York, NY: Rubin Museum of Art, 2009), 10-11, 121-23, and 223.
Cat. 39: Mañjuśrī - Arapachana

a ra pa tsa na ’jam dpal dbyangs
This sculpture corresponds to the form
of Mañjuśrī who dwells on Wutai shan’s
central peak, where he is called Mañjuśrī
Nātha. A characteristic feature of
Mañjuśrī is that he wears his hair in five
tresses or braids, corresponding to the five
peaks of Wutai shan, which is vividly
depicted in this sculpture.
Tibet; 17th century. Gilt copper alloy; 22” high.

Lent by the Lobsang & Jane Werner-Aye
Collection.
This painting represents the most common
form of Mañjuśrī found in all traditions of
northern Buddhism. His name, Arapachana,
derives from the mystical alphabet based on
the Book of Transcendental Wisdom itself. This
form corresponds to the Mañjuśrī who dwells
on Wutai shan’s central peak, called Mañjuśrī
Nātha. His peak is made of gold and is
associated with the realm of the Buddha
Vairocana. His right hand holds aloft the blue
flaming sword of wisdom which severs
ignorance. The left holds the stem of an utpala
flower supporting on the blossom the Book of
Transcendental Wisdom.
Above in the clouds appear teachers of the
Sa skya school of Tibetan Buddhism. Mañjuśrī
Tibet; 18th century. Pigments on cloth; is considered very important to the Sa skya
30.875" h. x 20.75" w. Rubin Museum of school, so much so that all of the important
Art. C2004.1 (HAR 521).
lineage holders of the Sa skya school were regarded as emanations of the

Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī.
Published:
Art of Wisdom and Compassion. New York: Tibet House New York, Publishers,
1999, Cat. No. 31.

This orange form of Mañjuśrī,
wielding his sword and holding the Book
of Transcendental Wisdom aloft, is
associated with Wutai shan’s central peak.
At the bottom center Sarasvatī, Goddess
of Literature, Learning, and Music, plays
her lute.
This painting is a pastiche of several
compositions by the great
eighteenth-century scholar-painter Si tu
paṇ chen (1700-1774). It includes Asaṅga
and Vasubandhu at bottom right and
Āryadeva and Nāgārjuna receiving the
Book of Transcendental Wisdom from the
serpent spirits (nāga) at bottom left, both
from a larger set of Indian scholars called
the “Six Ornaments and Two Superiors.”
Tibet; 19th century. Pigments on cloth; 16¼ x (See Cat. 37 for one of the compositions
12¼ in. C2006.66.464 (HAR 925).
this painting was based on.) However,
something of Si tu paṇ chen’s brilliance as a composer of paintings is lost in the
repeated copying, most noticeably where his billowing-cloud and swirling-water
forms of Chinese inspiration have become hardened into flat linear patterns.
-

’jam dpal dbyangs
Tibet, 12th-13th century. Bronze; height 14.3

cm. Collection of Nyingjei Lam (HAR 68323).

’jam dpal dbyangs
Tibet; 15th century. Copper alloy; 3⅝ x 3½ x ¾

in. Rubin Museum of Art.C2006.23.2 (HAR
65656).

’jam dpal dbyangs
Published: Weldon, David, and Jane
Casey Singer. The Sculptural Heritage of
Tibet: Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam
Tibet, 14th century. Metalwork; height: 14 cm.

Collection of Nyingjei Lam (HAR 68322).
Cat. 45: White Mañjuśrī

’jam dpal dkar po
White Mañjuśrī corresponds to the form
of Mañjuśrī that inhabits Wutai shan’s
southern terrace, where he is called
Jñānasattva. His peak is made of
semiprecious stones and is associated with
the realm of the Buddha Ratnasaṁbhava.
Here he is depicted as an eight-year-old
youth, white, like the autumn moon, with
his hair tied into five tufts. The Book of
Transcendental Wisdom is supported by an
utpala blossom at his left shoulder. As
described in early liturgical texts, below
the deity’s lotus throne a pair of elephants
plays in the water.
The Tibetan painter’s choices of color
create a remarkable effect in this painting.
The deep blue of the sky combined with
the soft warm orange of the nimbus
Tibet; 19th century. Pigments on cloth; 21 x overlaid with fine lines of gold contrasts
14 in. Rubin Museum of Art. C2006.66.30
(HAR 846).
with the cool luminous white of the
bodhisattva’s body, causing it to shine forth like moonlight, just as he is described

in his liturgy.
Cat. 46: Mañjuśrī Nāmasaṃgīti

’jam dpal mtshan brjod
This four-armed form of Mañjuśrī is
similar to the one who resides on the
eastern terrace of Wutai shan, where he
is called Mañjughoṣa Tikṣṇa. His peak is
made of crystal and is associated with the
realm of the Buddha Akṣobhya.
Iconometric measuring lines have been
drawn with red and blue ink, indicating
the correct physical proportions for the
drawing of this form of Mañjuśrī. The
Tibetan Buddhist painting traditions
follow strict guidelines for body
Tibet; 19th century. Pigment on cotton; 14¾ x proportions, which vary according to the
14¼ in. Rubin Museum of Art. C2004.1 (HAR kind of figure being depicted.
236).
Cat. 47: Mañjuśrī Nāmasaṃgīti
’jam dpal mtshan brjod/
This form of Mañjuśrī is similar to the
one that resides on the eastern terrace of
Wutai shan, where he is called
Mañjughoṣa Tikṣṇa. Filling the
surrounding space of this painting are one
hundred figures displaying the three most
common forms of Mañjuśrī. At the
bottom left is a teacher (bla ma) seated
on a throne, wearing red monastic robes
and hat, and accepting white scarves from
a bla ma and a lay woman wearing an
apron. Opposite, just above the bottom
right corner, are two small figures seated
upon lotus blossoms and facing toward
the main figure of Mañjuśrī. These two,
possibly deceased children, may be the
reason for the commissioning of the work.
The merit gained from the sponsoring and
Tibet; 15th century. Pigments on cloth; 35 x viewing of the painting is dedicated
24¼ in. Rubin Museum of Art. C2006.66.119 toward a beneficial rebirth of the two
(HAR 62). individuals.
At the top of the deities’ throne back, a scrolling vegetal pattern of curling leaves
is painted in cool blues and greens against a contrasting warm red ground causing
them to spring forth, creating an abstract pattern that gives this provincial painting
its charm. This painting is likely from the remote area of Dol po on the Tibet-Nepal
border.
Nepal; 16th century. Gilt copper alloy with inlays of

semiprecious stones; 8.5" h. x 4.25" w. x 4" d. Rubin Museum
of Art. C2003.33.2 (HAR 65255).
This sculpture of Mañjuśrī, with his leg hanging down, could have once been
seated on a lion (now lost), which would make him Mañjuśrī Dharmadhātu or
Siṁhanāda, corresponding to the form of Mañjuśrī who lives on Wutai shan’s

western peak.
There are several features that identify this sculpture as Nepalese, specifically
the distinctive helmet crowned with a vajra that he wares and the inlaying of
translucent semiprecious stones such as crystal, which is more common in Nepal
than Tibet.

’jam dpal dbyangs
This sculpture from western Tibet
follows Pala patterns of non-iconic forms,
in which the deity holds the attributes of
the bodhisattva, such as the sword, here
held in a martial pose at his chest, but
does not follow Tantric textual
descriptions. In such non-iconic images,
the composition of the figure is arranged
by the sculptor based on personal artistic
considerations and are, therefore, often
some of the more visually interesting.
-
Tibet; tenth century. Gilt copper alloy; 9.5" h.

x 3.5" w. x 1.5" d. Rubin Museum of Art.
C2002.29.3 (HAR 65147).
Cat. 50: Protective Astrological Chart

srid pa ho
This Tibetan astrological chart is an
auspicious talisman and an instructional
tool that brings good fortune to all those
who see, display, or possess it. Such
charts can often be found hanging on the
walls of Tibetan houses or even engraved
on amulets carried on one’s person. This
Tibetan system of astrology derives from
China and was believed to have been
taught by Mañjuśrī at Wutai shan. It is
unclear when this association with
Mañjuśrī on Wutai shan as the source of
Tibetan divination started, but it is already
present in the fourteenth-century Padma
bka’ thang (1352), a biography of
Padmasambhava (pad ma ’byung gnas)
by the treasure revealer O rgyan gling pa
(b. 1323).164 By the seventeenth century
this perception that Mañjuśrī taught this
Tibet; 19th century. Ground mineral pigment system of divination represented in this
on cotton. Rubin Museum of Art. C2006.71.11 chart on Wutai shan is firmly established,
(HAR 65764).
as can be seen in The White Beryl
(baiḍūrya dkar po), an (encyclopedic) treatise on Tibetan astrology and divination
commissioned by the Fifth Dalai Lama’s regent, the Sde srid sangs rgyas rgya
mtsho (1653-1705).165
The primary figure at bottom center is a yellow tortoise, an emanation of the
Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, lying on its back. The tortoise is a metaphor for creation,
and origin myths of the world were based on this system of astrology, with the
image of the tortoise at its center. On the tortoise’s belly is a small circle of nine
colored squares containing the nine magic numbers (sme ba dgu), the eight trigrams
(spar kha brgyad), and the twelve animals of the zodiac, which, combined with
the five elements, form the sixty-year cycle of the Tibetan calendar. Along the
sides are rows of sigils, each representing a negative spirit, which binds them in a
contract agreeing not to harm the displayer of the image. Along the top Indian
deities, planetary deities, and important stars guard against maladies like epilepsy.
164
Yeshe Tsogyal, The Life and Liberation of Padmasambhava (Berkeley: Dharma Publishing,
1978); Gustave-Charles Toussaint, Le Dict de Padma: Padma Thang yig Ms. de Lithang, Bibliothèque
de l’Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises 3 (Paris: Librairie Ernest Leroux, 1933), 152-54; cited by
Köhle, “Why Did the Kangxi Emperor Go to Wutai Shan?” M. A. Thesis, 10, fn. 14.
165
Sde srid sangs rgyas rgya mtsho, Tibetan Elemental Divination Paintings: Illuminated Manuscripts
from the White Beryl of Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho: With the Moonbeams Treatise of Lo chen Dharmaśrī,
commentary and translation by Gyurme Dorje (London: John Eskenasi, 2001), 19-59.
Seated at top center of this painting is Mañjuśrī in his more familiar form,
wielding a flaming sword.

’jam dpal dbyangs
At the top and bottom of this
Chinese-inspired painting of Mañjuśrī are
small narrative scenes, possibly depicting
Mañjuśrī’s previous lives. This is an
unusual theme to find illustrated, and
based on comparisons to other known
sets, this work would likely have been the
fifth painting from a set of seven.166
-
Tibet or China; 18th century. Pigments on cloth;

56½ x 31¾ in. Rubin Museum of Art.
C2006.40.1 (HAR 65685).
166
A set of seven paintings of this unusual theme, otherwise unknown to me in Tibetan Buddhism,
can be found in the Palace Museum in Beijing. Thanks to Jeff Watt for this identification and bringing
this set in Beijing to my attention. Another painting in the RMA collection of Mañjuśrī Arapachana
C2006.31.5 (HAR 65662) with narrative scenes in the corners, each labeled; may belong to a related
thematic set.
Figure 41. Artist notations, detail of Cat. 50

Mañjuśrī. Rubin Museum of Art C2006.40.1
(HAR 65685).
Figure 42. Attendant figures, detail of Cat. 50

Mañjuśrī. Rubin Museum of Art C2006.40.1
(HAR 65685).
Although painted with a strong Chinese sensibility, the Tibetan identity of the
painters is revealed in Tibetan language artists’ color notations where the paint
has flaked away (Fig. 41). Also, while the clothing of the secondary figures are
quite Chinese in general appearance, details like the crown and hat of the two
attendant figures to the left (Fig. 42) do not appear in either Tibetan or Chinese
painting, suggesting that Tibetan painters referenced models from another culture
with strong connections to Chinese art, such as the Tanguts, Kitans, or Jurchin of
Central Asia. In overall palette and style this painting would appear to be an
eighteenth-century work.167
167
There is also a painting of Maitreya in the Rubin Museum of Art (C2006.66.34 HAR 1111) of
similar size and general appearance in the RMA which has been identified by some as belonging to the
same set (see for instance: http://www.himalayanart.org/image.cfm?icode=1111), and it has even been
suggested that both these works date to the Tangut period (eleventh to early thirteenth century). However
in comparing these two paintings closely one notices that the painters who produced the Maitreya
composition had a good grasp of how a Chinese landscape is built up with layers of ink, using specific
specialized brush techniques, such as the “axe” texture stroke, while the painters of the Mañjuśrī painting
here employ no recognizable Chinese brushwork in this simple blue-green landscape of only distant
Chinese inspiration, such as can be seen in the rocks framing the foreground. Also, as already noted
in Rhie and Thurman (Marylin Rhie and Robert Thurman, eds., Worlds of Transformation: Tibetan
Art of Wisdom and Compassion [New York, NY: Tibet House, 1999], 198-200, no. 33), the composition
of the landscape in the Maitreya painting is more consistent with paintings of Chinese forms of
Avalokiteśvara, such as Water Moon Guanyin (Shuiyue Guanyin, 水月观音), opening even this
identification of the central deity to question. It is almost as if within the same workshop there are two
sets of painters at work, one Chinese-trained who provided the ink landscape and the three large attendant
Glossary
Note: The glossary is organized into sections according to the main language of
each entry. The first section contains Tibetan words organized in Tibetan
alphabetical order. Columns of information for all entries are listed in this order:
THL Extended Wylie transliteration of the term, THL Phonetic rendering of the
term, the English translation, the Sanskrit equivalent, the Chinese equivalent, other
equivalents such as Mongolian or Latin, associated dates, and the type of term.
Ka
Wylie Phonetics English Other Dates Type
kaḥthog Katok Monastery
ka dam pa bde gshegs Kadampa Deshek 1122-1192 Person
karma pa Karmapa Person

kar shod Karshö Place
kun dga’ rgyal mtshan Künga Gyentsen 1182-1251 Person
kun tu khyab pa’i lha Küntu Khyappé Complete Chi. Yuanzhao si Monastery
khang Lhakhang Illumination
Monastery
kun bde tshal Kündé Tsel Cloister of Chi. Pule yuan Building
Universal Joy
kun dpag gling Künpak Ling Pushou monastery Chi. Pushou si Monastery
krong ko’i bod rig pa Trongkö Bö Rikpa Publisher
dpe skrun Petrünkhang
khang
klong chen pa Longchenpa Person
klong chen pa dri med Longchenpa Drimé 1308-1363 Person
’od zer Özer
dkon mchog phan bde Könchok Pendé Person
dkyil ’khor kyinkhor San. maṇḍala Term

bka’ ’gyur Kangyur Text
bka’ brgyud Kangyü Organization
bka’ thang zangs Katang Zanglingma Chronicles of Text
gling ma Zanglingma (Life
story of
Padmasambhava)
bka’ shog kashok edict Term
figures at the bottom (such as the boy sudhana), and another Tibetan-trained who painted the main
figure of this red Maitreya, bearing his distinctive identifying attributes stūpa and ewer, as well as the
surrounding narrative scenes. Evidence of this hypothesis is visible on the main figure, where green
pigment has abraded away to reveal the same Tibetan painting notations visible in the Mañjuśrī painting
presented here. The early dating of these paintings to the eleventh-early thirteenth century also seems
unlikely, for while certain archaic forms such as the hats of the attendant figures in the Mañjuśrī painting
do appear, the landscape conventions employed are consistent with much later Chinese painting, such
as those of the eighteenth century.
sku brnyan sum brgya Kunyen Sumgya The Three Hundred Text
Icons
sku ’bum par khang Kumbum Parkhang Publisher
Kha
khams Kham Place
khri srong lde btsan Tri Songdetsen 742-796 Person
mkhas grub Khedrup 1385-1438 Person
mkhas pa’i dga’ ston Khepé Gatön A Feast for Text
Scholars
Ga
gang pa Gangpa Author
gangs can rig mdzod Gangchen Rikdzö Series
grub chen o Drupchen Orgyenpé A Stream of Text
rgyan pa’i rnam par Nampar Tarpa Blessings, A
thar pa byin brlabs Jinlapkyi Chugyün Biography/Hagiography
kyi chu rgyun of the Mahāsiddha
Orgyenpa
grub phyogs kun ’dus Drupchok Kündü Shifang Hall Chi. Shifang Tang Building
gling Ling
gro tshang rdo rje Drotsang Dorjé Chang Chi. Qutan si Monastery
’chang
grwa Drasa Chenpo Zhi A Garland of White Text
sa chen po bzhi dang dang Gyüpa Tömé Lotuses, the
rgyud pa stod smad Chaktsül Pekar Formation of the
chags tshul pad dkar Trengwo Four Monastic
’phreng bo Colleges and
Upper and Lower
Tantric Colleges
dge tshogs gling Getsok Ling Jifu Monastery Chi. Jifu si Monastery
dge lugs Geluk Organization
dge bshes geshé doctor of divinity Term
dge slong gelong monk Mon. gelung Term
mgon po ri Gönpo Ri Mahākāla Hill Mountain
rgya gar phug Gyagar Puk India Cave Chi. Xitian Dong Cave
rgya bod yig tshang Gyabö Yiktsang The Great Text
chen mo Chenmo Tibetan-Chinese
Dictionary
rgya bod hor sog gi Gyaböhorsokgi Chok The Collected Text
mchog bar pa rnams Barpa Namla Trinyik Correspondence of
la ’phrin yig snyan Nyenngaktu Köpa the Fifth Dalai
ngag tu bkod pa rab Rapnyen Gyümang Lama to Persons in
snyan rgyud mang China,
Tibet, and
Mongolia
rgya mtsho ‘dul ba’i Gyatso Dülwé Ling Taming the Ocean Chi. Zhenhai si Monastery
gling Monastery
rgyal bo kyin kang me Gyelbo Kyinkang Chi. Jingang Miji Buddhist deity
kyi Mekyi Wang
rgyal yum sgrub phug Gyelyum Druppuk Mother of the Chi. Fomu Dong Building
Buddha Cave
sga a gnyan dam pa Ga Aknyen Dampa Chi. Danba 1230-1303 Person
kun dga’ Künga Drak
grags
sgra gcan ’dzin gyi Drachendzingyi Rāhula Temple Chi. Luohou si Monastery
lha khang Lhakhang
Nga
ngag dbang blo bzang Ngawang Lozang Chi. Awang 1601-1687 Person
Laozang
ngag dbang blo bzang Ngawang Lozang Author
rgya mtsho Gyatso
ngor mkhan chen Ngor Khenchen 1649-1705 Author
sangs rgyas phun Sanggyé Püntsok
tshogs
mnga’ bdag nyang ral Ngadak Nyangrel Person
nyi ma ’od Nyima Özer
zer
mngon par gsal ba’i Ngönpar Selwé Clear Chi. Xiantong si Monastery
lha khang Lhakhang Understanding
Monastery
Ca
co ne Choné Chi. Monastery
Zhuonichanding si
lcags zam pa thang Chakzampa Tangtong Iron Bridge Man 1361?-1485 Person
stong rgyal Gyelpo
po
lcang skya hu thog thu Changja Hutukhtu Chi. Zhangjia Person
Hutuketu
lcang skya rol pa’i Changja Rölpé Dorjé Person
rdo rje
lcang skya rol pa’i Changja Rölpé Dorjé A Text
rdo rje’i rnam Namtar Biography/Hagiography
thar of Changja Rölpé
Dorjé
Cha
cham cham dance Term
chu shing chushing rattan wood Term
chub mig gsum ’dres Chupmik Sumdré Sanquan Monastery Chi. Sanquan si Monastery
gling Ling
chos kyi dbang phyug Chökyi Wangchuk 1212-1270 Person
chos kyi seng ge Chökyi Senggé Author

chos grags rgya mtsho Chödrak Gyatso The Seventh 1454-1506 Person
Karmapa
chos rgyal ’phags pa Chögyel Pakpa Person
chos rgyal ’phags pa Chögyel Pakpa Lodrö 1235-1280 Person

blo gros Gyentsen
rgyal mtshan
mchod rten chörten reliquary San. stūpa Term
mchod rten gsum pa’i Chörten Sumpé Ling Santa Monastery Chi. Santa si Monastery
gling
Ja
jo khang Jokhang Chi. Dazhao si Building
’jam dpal dbyangs Jampel Yang San. Mañjughoṣa Buddhist deity
’jam dpal dbyangs Jampel Yang Bodhisattva of San. Mañjuśrī Buddhist deity
Wisdom
’jam dbyangs mkhyen Jamyang Khyentsé b. 1819 Person
rtse dbang Wangpo
po
’jam dbyangs la ri Jamyangla Riwo The Garland of Text
bo rtse lngar bstod pa Tsengar Töpa Norbü Jewels: Praise to
nor bu’i phreng ba Trengwa Mañjuśrī at
Wutaishan
rje btsun dam pa Jetsün Dampa Person
Nya
nyang ral nyi ma ’od Nyangrel Nyima Özer 1136-1204 Person
zer
nyang ral nyi ma’od Nyangrel Nyima Özer 1136-1204 Person
zer
rnying ma Nyingma Organization
Ta
tā khu re Takhuré Chi. Dakuwei Place
Mon. Da Khüriye
ta la’i bla ma Talé Lama Oceanic Guru Person
tu’u bkwan chos kyi Tukwan Chökyi Author
nyima Nyima
gter ston tertön treasure revealer Term
rta mgrin tshe dbang Tamdrin Tsewang Author
rtag brtan bde chen Takten Dechen Ling Temple of Chi. Shouning si Monastery
gling Longevity and
Tranquility
ltog gi spag ri Tokgi Pakri Huanhua Chi. Huanhua si Monastery
Monastery
bstan ’gyur Tengyur “Translated Text
Treatises” (the
complete collection
of the Buddhist
commentarial
tradition explaining
the Kangyur, the
Translated Words
of the Buddha)
Tha
thang ka tangka Term
thim phu Timpu Publication
Place
Da
dam pa Dampa Person
ding ri glang ’khor Dingri Langkhor 1097 Monastery
deb ther sngon po Depter Ngönpo Blue Annals ca. Text
1476-1478
dol po Dölpo Place
dwangs bsil ri bo rtse Dangsil Riwo Tsengé A Pilgrimage Guide Text
lnga’i gnas Neshé to Clear and Cool
bshad Five-Peaked
Mountain
gdong drug snyems Dongdruk Nyempé Author
pa’i blo gros Lodrö
bde gshegs bstan pa’i Deshek Tenpé Seljé History of 1322 Text
gsal Chökyi Jungné Buddhism in India
byed chos kyi ’byung and Tibet
gnas
mdo smad chos Domé Chöjung History of Amdo Text
’byung
rdo sgo glegs dogo lek stone door panel Term
rdo rje phug Dorjé Puk Vajra Cave Chi. Jingang ku Monastery
sde dge Degé Chi. Dege Place
sde srid sangs rgyas Desi Sanggyé Gyatso 1653-1705 Person
rgya mtsho
Na
nam mkha’ bkra shis Namkha Trashi Person
nam mkha’ seng ge Namkha Senggé fourteenth Person
c.
nas lung pa ngag Nelungpa Ngawang b. Person
dbang rdo rje Dorjé seventeenth
century
nor bzang Norzang San. Maṇibhadra Buddhist deity
nor bzang sgrub phug Norzang Druppuk Cave of Sudhana Chi. Shancai Dong Building
rnam par rgyal ma Nampar Gyelma A type of ritual San. dhāraṇī Term
speech
Pa
pad ma ’byung gnas Pema Jungné San. Person
Padmasambhava
padma bka’ thang Pema Katang Chronicles of the Text
Lotus [Born], a
biography of
Padmasambhava
paṇ chen bla ma Penchen Lama Person

dpal ldan bkra shis Pelden Trashi Person
dpal ’byor bzang po Peljor Zangpo Author
spar kha brgyad parkha gyé eight trigrams Term
spyan ras gzigs kyi Chenrezikkyi Puk Cave of Chi. Guanyin Dong Building
phug Avalokiteśvara
Pha
pha dam pa Padampa Person
pha dam pa dang ma Padampa dang Biographies of Text
cig Machik Lapdröngyi Dampa Sanggyé
lab sgron gyi rnam Namtar and Machik
thar Lapdrön
pha dam pa sangs Padampa Sanggyé Chi. Padangba d. 1117 Person
rgyas Sangjie
phag mo gru Pakmodru Name
government
phur lcog ngag dbang Purchok Ngawang Person
byams pa Jampa
phrin las rab ’phel Trinlé Rappel Person
’phags pa Pakpa Person
’phags pa shing kun Pakpa Shingküngyi Descriptive Catalog Text
gyi dkar Karchak of Svayambhu
chag
Ba
bal yul rang byung Belyül Rangjung History of the San. Text
mchod Chörten Chenpö Svāyambhū Stupa Svāyambhūpurāṇa
rten chen po’i lo Logyü
rgyus
bi ji Biji Person
bu ston chos ’byung Butön Chöjung A History of Text
Buddhism
according to Butön
bu ston chos ’byung Butön Chöjung A Treasury of Text
gsung Sungrap Rinpoché Precious
rab rin po che’i Dzö Teachings, a
mdzod History of
Buddhism
according to
Butön
bu ston rin chen grub Butön Rinchendrup 1290-1364 Person
bug pa bukpa hole Term

baiḍūrya dkar po Baidurya Karpo The White Beryl Text
bog to rgyal po Bokto Gyelpo Chi. Hongtaiji Person
byang chub sems Jangchup Sempé Por Cloister of the True Chi. Pusa Ding Monastery
dpa’i spor Contenance
byams dge gling Jamgé Ling Kindness and Chi. Cifu si Monastery
Happiness
Monastery
brag khung Drakkhung rock cave Place

bla brang Labrang Monastery
bla ma lama San. guru Chi. lama Term
blo bzang sman lam Lozang Menlam Chi. Amo Luosang Person
Manlong
dbyangs can dga’ ba’i Yangchen Gawé Author
blo gros Lodrö
’bri gung Drigung Organization
sba bzhed Bazhé Testament of Ba Text
sba’ bzhed zhabs Bazhé Zhaptakma The Testament of Text
btags ma Ba
Ma
mi bskyod rdo rje Mikyö Dorjé The Eighth 1507-1554 Person
Karmapa
dmar po ri Marpo Ri Red Hill Mountain
sman ris Menri Name generic
sme ba dgu mewa gu nine magic numbers Term
smon lam rdo rje Mönlam Dorjé 1284-1346/7 Person
Tsa
tsi tsu sa ra gtsug lag Tsitsu Sara Tsuklak Tsitsu Sara Chapel Building
khang Khang
tsong kha pa Tsongkhapa Chi. Zongkapa Person
gtsug lag khang tsuklak khang chapel San. vihāra Term
btsan po tsenpo Term
rtsa ba’i bla ma tsawé lama root guru Term
Tsha
tshangs dbyangs rgya Tsangyang Gyatso The Sixth Dalai 1683-1706/ Person
mtsho Lama 1746
tshal pa Tselpa Person
mtshur phu Tsurpu Monastery
mtsho sngon mi rigs Tsongön Mirik Publisher
dpe skrun Petrünkhang
khang
Dza
dza sag bla ma Dzasak Lama Jasagh Lama Chi. Zhasa Person
Mon. Zasag/Jasag
dznyā na srī man Dznyana Srimen Author
rdzogs chen Dzokchen Doxographical
Category
Zha
zhi byed Zhijé Pacification of Doxographical
Suffering Category
zhing mchog ri bo Zhingchok Riwo A Pilgrimage Guide Text

dwangs bsil gyi gnas Dangsilgyi Neshé to the Pure Land of
bshad dad pa’i padmo Depé Pemo Gyejé Clear and Cool
rgyas byed ngo Ngotsar Nyimé Mountain
mtshar nyi ma’i snang Nangwa (Wutaishan)
ba
zhing mchog ri bo Zhingchok Riwo dang Pilgrimage Guide Text
dwangs bsil Silgyi Neshé to the Pure Realm
gyi gnas bshad of Clear and Cool
Mountain
Ya
yul bsrung gling Yülsung Ling Youguo Moanstery Chi. Youguo si Monastery
ye shes tsogyal Yeshé Tsogyel Person
yongs ’dul gling Yongdül Ling Guanghua Chi. Guanghuahou Monastery
Monastery si
Ra
rang byung rdo rje Rangjung Dorjé 1284-1339 Person
ri bo dwangs bsil Riwo Dangsil Clear and Cool Chi. Qingliang Mountain
Mountain shan
ri bo rtse lnga Riwo Tsenga Five-Peak Chi. Wutai shan Mountain
Mountain
ri bo rtse lnga’i dkar Riwo Tsengé Karchak A Clear Mirror, a Text
chag Rapsel Melong Catalog of
rab gsal me long Five-Peak
Mountain
ri bo rtse lngar mjal Riwo Tsenga A Praise of Riwo Article
skabs kyi Jelkapkyi Netö Gur Tsenga: Songs
gnas bstod mgur made on the
Occasion of
Visiting There;
Origins of Great
Buddhist Festivals
Observed There
rigs med rikmé non-sectarian Term
rin chen snying po Rinchen Nyingpo San. Ratnagarbha- Text
gzungs Zung dhāraṇī Sūtra
rin chen dpal ldan Rinchen Penden Chi. Wuzong r. Person
1506-1521
rin po che snying po’i Rinpoché Nyingpö San. Mañjuśrī- Text
gzungs Zung dharma-
ratnagarbha-
dhāraṇī Sūtra Chi.
Baozang tuoluoni
jing
rol pa’i rdo rje Rölpé Dorjé Chi. Ruobi Duoji Person
La
lan jus sde bzhi sogs Lenjü Depzhi Sokkyi A Catalog of the Text
kyi dkar Karchak Four Monastic
chag Communities of
Liangzhou, Gansu
las stod Letö Chi. Liangzhou Place

Sha
shākya ye shes Shakya Yeshé Chi. Shijia Yeshi d. 1435 Person
Sa
sa skya paṇḍita Sakya Pendita Person
sa skya’i gdung rabs Sakyé Dungrap Sakya Lineage Text
sa paṇ rtogs brjod Sapen Tokjö Kelzang Avadana 1519 Text
bskal bzang legs Lekla (Biography) of
lam Sakya Pendita
sangs rgyas rabs bdun Sanggyé Rapdün Gön Seven Buddha Chi. Qifo si Monastery
dgon Monastery
si tu paṇ chen Situ Penchen Person
si tu paṇ chen chos kyi Situ Penchen Chökyi 1700-1774 Person
’byung Jungné
gnas
se kri ngag dbang Setri Ngawang Tendar Author
bstan dar
se ra Sera Chi. Sela Monastery
srong btsan sgam po Songtsen Gampo ca. Person
569-649;
rl.
617-650
bsam yas Samyé Monastery
bsod nams rgya mtsho Sönam Gyatso 1543-1588 Person
bsod nams ’od zer Sönam Özer b. 13th c. Person

Ha
lha khang lcags thog Lhakhang Tiewa Temple Chi. Tiewa si Monastery
can bya Chaktokchen Jawa
ba
lha sa Lhasa Chi. Lasa Place
lhun grub lhündrup ordained monk Term
lhun grub bde chen Lhündrup Dechen Dachongjiao Chi. Dachongjiao Monastery
gling Ling Monastery si
A
a kyā yongs ’dzin Aja Yongdzin Author
dbyangs can Yangchen Gawé
dga’ ba’i blo gros Lodrö
a mdo Amdo Place
u rgyan pa Urgyenpa Person
u rgyan pa rin chen Urgyanpa Rinchen Pel 1229/ Person
dpal 1230-1309
o rgyan gling pa Orgyen Lingpa b. 1323 Person
Chinese
Wylie Phonetics English Chinese Dates Type
Aixin Jueluo Author
Xuanye
Ancient Choné Anduo gucha Article
Monastery, Amdo chanding si
Anhui Province Anhui Sheng Place
Anige 1244-1278/ Person
1306
Awang Qingba Person
Awang Sangbu Person
Awang Yixi Person
Bai Lina Author
Bai Fusheng Author
Great White Stūpa Baita si Building
seven jewels of the baoqi Term
monarch
Baoxiang Baoxiang si Monastery
Monastery
Sutra of Precious Baoyu jing Text
Rain
Baozang tuoluoni Text
jing (San.
Ratnagarbha-
dhāraṇī sūtra)
Pakpa and Mt. Basiba yu Wutai Article
Wutai shan
Beihai Park Beihai Gongyuan Building
Capital of Yuan Beijing Place
Dynasty
Cai Hong Author
Cangsang Journal
Cao Person
Chen Qingying Author
Chengdu Publication
Place
Chenlai Da’erlai Person
Chongguo Chongguo si Monastery
Monastery
Chongshi shu yuan Publisher
Chun Rong Author
Cifu Monastery Cifu si Article
Kindness Cloud Ciyun si Monastery
Temple
Cui Wenkui Author
Cui Yuqin Author
Cui Zhengsen Author
inch cun Term

Da Lama Da Lama Term
The Stupa of the Da Yuan dai dishi Article
Imperial Preceptor basiba yiguan ta
of the Yuan
Dynasty, Pakpa
Dadu Place
Dakuwei Term
Dansheng Jiacuo Person
field of activity daochang (San. Term
maṇḍa)
Travels to Western Datang xiyu ji Text
Lands
Dayuanzhao Dayuanzhao si Monastery
Temple
Great Kingdom of dazhenna Term
China
Imperial Preceptor dishi Person
Dong Da tushu Publisher
gongsi
East Asian Dong Ya Han Zang Text
Sino-Tibetan fojiao yanjiu
Buddhist History
Research
Du Doucheng Author
Dunhuang Place
Textual Evidence Dunhuang Wutai Text
on Mt. Wutai from shan wenxian
Dunhuang
Emei Mountain Emei shan Mountain
Buddha Light Foguang si Monastery
Monastery
Fojiao wen shi Journal
Buddha Mother Fomu Dong Article
Cave
Fotuo Poli (San. Person
Buddhapālita)
Buddha Footprint Fozu Bei Building
Stele
A Comprehensive Fozu lidai tongzai before Text
Registry of the 1340
Successive Ages of
the Buddhist
Patriarchs
Gailichen Pianer Person
Gansu Province Gansu Place
Gansu minzu Publisher
chubanshe
Gao Chengwen Author
Gao Lintao Author
Geshou Quebei Person

Guayue Peak Guayue feng Mountain
Gugong bowuyuan Journal
yuankan
Guo Chengwen Author
Hebei Publication
Place
Hebei jiaoyu Publisher
chubanshe
Helan Mountains Helan shan Mountain
Henan Province Henan Place
Hexi Place
Hongwu Person
Hou Huiming Author
Houzhao si Monastery
yellow temple huangmiao Term
The Gelukpa at Mt. Huangjiao zai Article
Wutai Wutai shan de
chuanbo
Protection of the Huguo si Monastery
Nation Monastery
Jia Person
Jiachan Sangbu Person
A Brief Discussion Jianlun Wutai shan Article
of the Status of zangchuan fojiao de
Tibetan Buddhism diwei
at Wutai Shan
Jie Lüe Author
one thousand jin Term
Jin Dynasty Jin Dynasty
Gold Lamp Temple Jindeng si Monastery
The Vajra Cave Jingang ku Text
Jingsu Guangling Publisher
guji keyin she
Golden Wheel Jinlun shengshen Person
Cakravartin August huangdi
Divine Emperor
Old Tang Dynasty Jiu Tangshu Text
History
Jiuhua Mountain Jiuhua shan Mountain
Juyong Stūpa Gate Juyong Guan Building
Kangxi 1662-1723 Person
silk appliqué kesi Term
Lama Nima Person
Collection of Lamajiao Text
Images of Tibetan Shengxiangji
Buddhist Deities
Lanzhou Publication
Place
Laozang Danba Person
Laozang Danbei Person
Laozang Queta Person
Li Jicheng Author
Li Shiming Author
Liao Dynasty Liao Chao 907-1125 Dynasty
The Code for Lifanyuan zili Text
Tributary
Territories
Liu Yao Editor
Luosang Danpian Person
A Brief Study of Lüe lun yuandai Article
the Spread of zangchuan fojiao
Tibetan Buddhism zai Wutai shan de
on Wutai shan chuanbo
during the Yuan
Dynasty
Lüe lun zangchuan Article
fojiao shi shang de
nü Mizongshi Maji
Lazhen yi qi Neng
Duanpai
A Discussion of Lun Zhangjia Article
Rol pa’i rdo rje’s Ruobiduo Ji dui
Contribution to the Zang Han wenhua
Exchange of jiaoliu de gongxian
Tibetan
and Chinese
Culture
A Brief History of Luohou si fojiao Article
Louhou Monastery shilüe
Luohou Monastery Luohou si yu Article
and Shifang Hall Shifang Tang
Luosang Basang Person
Luosang Danzhu Author
Ma Lianlong Author
Manju Manzu Ethinicity
Mongolian Chaotai Mengguren Article
and ‘chaotai’ yu
Sino-Mongolian menghan goutong
Communication
The Mongolian Mengzu renmin de Article
People’s Passion Wutai shan qing
for Wutai Shan
Ming dynasty Ming chao 1368-1644 Dynasty
the ren wu year Ming Wanli ren wu Term
[tenth year] of the qiu
Wanli era
Minzhou Minzhou Place
Minzu chubanshe Publisher

Southern Song Nan Song 1127-1279 Dynasty
Nange Temple Nange Miao Building
Southern Mountain Nanshan si Monastery
Temple
Neimenggu shehui Journal
kexue (hanwen ban)
Chinese New Year nianhua Term
Woodblock print
Popa Ciren Author
Pu’an Monastery Pu’an si Monastery
Pu’en Temple Pu’en si Monastery
Puli Platform Puli Tai Mountain
Pusading’s Pusading de fojiao Article
Buddhist History lishi
Putuo Mountain Putuo shan Mountain
A Superficial Qianxi Wutai shan Article
Analysis of the zangchuan fojiao
Characteristics of zhi tezheng
Tibetan Buddhism
at Wutai
Shan
Qianlong 1711-1799 Person
Kitans Qidan Ethnicity
Qing dynasty Qing chao 1644-1911 Dynasty
Chinese temple Qingmiao Term
Qing Taizi r. Person
1616-1626
Qinghai Province Qinghai Place
The Old Man of Qingliang laoren Article
Qinglian Awang Laozang ta
[Mountain,] Awang ming
Laozang
Record of Clear Qingliang shan zhi Text
and Cool Mountain
Clear and Cool Qingliang si Monastery
Monastery
Qinglong Mountain Qinglong shan Mountain
Quepei Daji Person
Renmin chubanshe Publisher
as you wish ruyi Term
A Summary of the Sanshe Jiangjia Article
Third Changja State guoshi zhu xi Wutai
Preceptor’s shan shilüe
Residency on Wutai
Shan
Shanfu si Monastery
Shanxi Province Shanxi Sheng Place
Shaoba Chunzhu Person

Shaolin Temple Shaolin si Monastery
A Chinese Shengdi Qingliang Article
Translation of shan zhi
Rolpé Dorjé’s
Guide to Wutai
Shan
Shi Beiyue Author
On Wutai Shan Shitan Wutai shan Article
Tibetan Buddhism zangchuan fojiao yu
and Sorcerer’s jingangshenwu
Dancer
Shibeiyue Person
Shifang Hall Shifang Tang Article
Stone Stupa Temple Shita si Monastery
Water Moon Shuiyue Guanyin Buddhist deity
Guanyin
Shuxiang Shuxiang si Monastery
Monastery
Brief Introduction Shuxiang si fojiao Article
to Buddhism at jianshi
Shuxiang
Monastery
four great Buddhist si da ming shan Place
mountains of China
Sichuan minzu Publisher
chubanshe
Sichuan Province Sichuan Sheng Place
Song Dynasty Song Chao 960-1279 Dynasty
Song Wenhui Author
Suo Nancao Author
Taibei Publication
Place
Tailu Monastery Tailu si Monastery
Taiyuan Publication
Place
Tang Dynasty Tang Chao 618-906 Dynasty
Stupa Grove Tayuan si Monastery
Monastery
Tian Pi Editor
Tianshun 1457-1464 Person
An Overview of Tianzhu zangchuan Text
Tibetan Buddhist fojiao si yuan gai
Temples of Tianzhu kung
(Gansu)
Tianzhu Zangzu Organization
Zizhixian wei yuan
hui
Tuanjie chubanshe Publisher
Wa Ma Author
Wang Bin Author

Wang Bin Author
Wang Hongli Author
Wang Jianmin Author
Wang Jiapeng Author
Wang Junzhong Author
Wang Lu Author
Wang Xiangyun Author
Wang Xuefeng Author
Wanghai Temple Wanghai si Monastery
Wanli Person
Wanshengyouguo Wansheng youguo Monastery
Temple si
Wei Guozuo Author
Wen Junyu Author
Spring Water Wenquan si Monastery
Temple
Wenshu Monastery Wenshu si Monastery
Wente Monastery Wente si Monastery
Crouching Dragon Wolong si Monastery
Temple
empress of China Wu zetian 624-705 Person
History of Wutai shan fojiao Text
Buddhism at Mt. shi
Wutai
Buddhist Wutai shan jingang Article
Monastery Rites wu ji lamam miao
and Vajra Dance at daochang
Mt. Wutai
Wutai Shan Travel Wutai shan lüyou Text
Dictionary cidian
Wutai shan yanjiu Journal
The Cultural Wutai shan yu Article
Exchange between Niboer fojiao
Wutai Shan and wenhua jiaoliu
Nepalese Buddhism
Mt. Wutai and Its Wutai shan yu Article
Map Wutai shan tu
Wutai Shan and the Wutai shan yu Article
Journey to the West ‘xiyouji’
Mt. Wutai and Wutai shan yu Article
Tibet Xizang
Wutai shan and Wutai shan yu Text
Tibetan Buddhism zangchuan fojiao
Wutai shan’s Wutai shan Article
Tibetan Buddhism zangchuan fojiao yu
and Ethnicities Join min zu tuan jie
Forces
The Stupas of Wutai shan zhi ta Article
Wutai shan
New Wutai Wutai xinzhi Text

Gazetteer
Xiaba Quebei Person
Xi’an Province Xi’an Place
Xiantong Xiantong si tongta Article
Monastery’s
Copper Stupas
Xiao Yu Author
Xiao Yu Author
Seven Buddhas Xiaoji Wutai shan Article
Monastery at Wutai Qifo si
Shan
Xibei Daxue Publisher
Xie Jisheng Editor
Xining Xining Publication
Place
Xiong Wenbin Author
West Shouning Xishouning si Monastery
Temple
Western Xia Xixia Dynasty
Record of Travels Xiyu ji Text
to Western Lands
Xizang minsu Journal
Xizang yanjiu Journal
Xuande r. Person
1426-1435
Xuanzang ca. Person
600-664
Yan Tianling Author
Yangzhou Publication
Place
Yingzong 1427-1464 Person
Yizhou shifan Journal
xueyuan xuebao
Yizhou Shifan Journal
Xueyuan xuebao
Yonghe Palace Yonghe Gong Monastery
Yongle r.1403-1424 Person
Yongquan Yongquan si Monastery
Monastery
Yongzheng 1678-1735, Person
r.1722-1735
Yuan Dynasty Yuan Chao 1279-1368 Dynasty
Yuan Dynasty Yuandai Zang Han Text
Tibetan-Chinese yishu jiaoliu
Artistic Exchange
A Study of the Yuandai Zangzu Article

Famous Yuan ming seng Danba
Dynasty Tibetan Guoshi kao
Monk the State
Preceptor
Dampa
History of Yuan Yuanshi Text
Yuanzhao Yuanzhao si fojiao Article
Monastery jianshi
Buddhist History
Yuhua Pond Yuhua Chi Lake
esoteric Buddhism Yujia mifa Doxographical
Category
Yunai Temple Yunai An Building
Yuzeng Shucuo Person
The Shape of Zangchuan fo ta de Article
Tibetan Buddhist xingzhi ji qi tedian
Stupas and their
Characteristics
Tibetan Buddhism Zangchuan fojiao Article
and Mt. Wutai yu Wutai shan
The Development Zangchuan fojiao Text
and Influence of zai Wutai shan de
Tibetan Buddhism fazhan ji yingxiang
at Wutai Shan
Changja Hutukhtu Zhangjia Hutu yu Article
and the Buddhism Wutai shan fojiao
of Wutai Shan
A Brief Study of an Zhangjia Hutuketu Article
Image of Changja xiang xiao kao
Hutukhtu
Zhangmu Yang Person
Zhangmu Person
Yangdanzeng
Zhangyang Mola Person
Zhao Gaiopin Author
Zhao Gaipin Author
Zhao Gaiping Author
Zhao Hong Author
Zhao Peicheng Author
Zhaya Person
Zhejiang Province Zhejiang Place
Zhencheng 1546-1617 Author
Zheng Lin Author
Zhengde Person
Zhengtong 1436-1449 Person
Zhenhai Monastery Zhenhai si beiwen Article
Stele Text
The Architecture Zhenhai si de Article

and Clay Sculptures jianzhu yu caisu
in Zhenhai yishu
Monastery
A Brief Study of Zhenhai si Zhangjia Article
Zhenhai Ruobi Duoji lingta
Monastery’s kaolüe
Changja Rolpé
Dorjé Reliquary
Stupa
Zhenrong Yuan Monastery
Zhongguo ren min Organization
zheng zhi xie shang
hui yi
Zhongguo zangxue Journal
Zhongguo Zangxue Publisher
Zhongxin
Zhonghua Foxue Journal
xuebao
Zhongyang minzu Publisher
daxue
Zhou Shengwen Author
Zhou Zhuying Author
Zhu Ying Author
Guide to the Sacred Zhufo Pusa Text
Images of All the Shengxiangzan
Buddhas and
Bodhisattvas
zi zai Term
zi zu Term
Forbidden City Zijing Cheng Building
Sanskrit
Wylie Phonetics English Sanskrit Dates Type
Akāśagarbha Buddhist deity
Eastern Buddha Akśobhya Buddhist deity
Western Buddha Amitābha Buddhist deity
Amitābha Buddha Buddhist deity
Northern Buddha Amoghasiddhi Buddhist deity
Amoghavajra (Chi. 705-774 Person
Bukong Jingang)
Ānanda Person
arapachana Term
Āryadeva Person
Asaṅga Person
Aśoka Person
Bodhisattva of Avalokiteśvara Buddhist deity
Compassion
Flower Garland Avataṃsaka Sūtra Text
Sutra (Chi. Huayan jing)
Bhagavat Buddhist deity

Bhelakīrti Person
Chariot Ritual Bhīmarata Ritual
Bodhidarma Person
Bodhimanda Place
Buddha Akśobhya Buddhist deity
Buddhajñānapāda active Person
eighth
century
funerary mound caitya Term
wheel cakra Term
the thousand-spoke cakra-caraṇatā Term
wheel sign, the
second of the
thirty-two marks
(lakṣaṇa)
of a great personage
or perfected being
Buddhist ruler cakravartin Term
sword candrahas Term
Buddhist Law dharma Term
Jānasattva Person
Jñāna Person
Jñāna-dakini Buddhist deity
White Manjusri Jñānasattva Buddhist deity
Kasiah Place
Kuśinagara Place
Magadha Place
Mahākāla (Chi. Da Buddhist deity
Heitian)
great being mahātma Term
Future Buddha Maitreya Buddhist deity
Mañjuśrī Stūpa Mañju-caitya Building
Four-armed Mañjughoṣa Tikṣṇa Buddhist deity
Mañjuśrī
Mañjuśrī Term
Dharmadhātu
Litany of the Names Mañjuśrī Text
of Mañjuśrī Nāmasaṃgīti
Manjusri wielding Mañjuśrī Nātha Buddhist deity
a sword
Manjusri Precious Mañjuśrī-dharma- Text
Treasury of the Law ratnagarbha-
Dhāraṇī Sūtra dhāraṇī Sūtra (Chi.
Wenshu shili fa
Baozang tuoluoni
jing)
The Glorious One Mañjuśrī-gosha Buddhist deity
with a Melodious
Voice
The great Mañjuśrīmulakalpa Term

cakravartin-chief
(the divinely
anointed ruler)
serpent spirit Nāga Buddhist deity
Nāgārjuna Person
Pala Dynasty
Pāṭaliputra Place
Patna Place
Book of Prajñāpāramitā Text
Transcendental Sūtra
Wisdom
Ratnagarbha Text
Dhāraṇī Sutra
Southern Buddha Ratnasaṁbhava Buddhist deity
Samantabhadra Buddhist deity
saṃsāra Term
sarasvatī Term
Spiritual siddhi Term
Attainment
Śrī siṃha Person
Amitabha’s Sukhāvatī Place
Western Paradise
sūtra Term
Svāyambhū Building
tantra Term
Tathāgata Buddhist deity
Tathāgata Buddhist deity
Śākyamuni
Ṭīkṣṇa- Mañjuśrī Buddhist deity
Manjusri seated on Vādisiṁha Buddhist deity
a lion
Central Buddha Vairocana Buddhist deity
Vajrabhairava Buddhist deity
(Chi. Daweide
Jingang)
Bearer of the Vajra Vajrapaṇī Buddhist deity
Bodhgaya, India Vajrāsana Place
Vasubandhu Person
Manjusri Vimala Buddhist deity
Vimalamitra Person
Vipashwi Buddha Buddhist deity
Udyana Place
“blue lily” utpala Term
(sometimes called
“blue lotus”)
Yama Buddhist deity
Other
Mon. Altan Khan 1507-1582 Person
Mon. Amurbayas Monastery
Qulangtu
monastic Mon. ayimag Term
community
Mon. Bogda Gegen Person
Mon. Burqan Khan Term
White History Mon. Chaghan Text
Teüke
Mon. Chinggis 1162-1227 Person
Khan
Mon. Chinggisid Clan
Gushri Khan Mon. Güüshi Khan 1582-1655 Person
Mon. Höhhot Place
Mon. Jehol Place
Mon. Khalkha Term
Mon. Khan Term
Mon. Kokonnor Place
Mon. Ligdan Khan b.1588, Person
r.1604-1634
Mnc. Mukden Place
Mon. Öljeitü Khan Person
Mon. Olug Darhan Person
Nangso
Mon. Ordos Place
Chi. Hubilie 1215-1294 Person
Mon. Qubilai Khan
Mon. Sengge Place
Aimag
Tartar Term
Mon. Temür r.1294-1307 Person
Great-grandson of Chi. Wenzong rl. Person
Qubilai Khan Mon. Toghon 1328/9-1332
Temür
Mon. Torghut Ethnicity
(Kalmuk)
Mon. Zanabazar 1635-1723 Person
Nima Dorje Author
Ragnubs
Tibetan Elemental Text

Divination
Paintings:
Illuminated
Manuscripts from
the
White Beryl of
Sangs rgyas rgya
mtsho: with the
Moonbeams
treatise of Lo chen
Dharmaśrī
Tibetan Peoples Publisher
Publishing House
The Fifth Karmarpa 1384-1415 Person
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Wutai Shan Pilgrimage To Five-Peak Mountain

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Journal of the

Issue 6 — December 2011

An online journal published by the Tibetan and Himalayan Library (THL)

• Wutai Shan: Pilgrimage to Five-Peak Mountain (pp. 1-133)

• Of Horses and Motorbikes: Negotiating Modernities in Pastoral A mdo, Sichuan

Abstracts (pp. 472-476)

Contributors to this Issue (pp. 477-480)

importance and transnational nature of Wutai shan in order to attempt a

Figure 4. 1846 Wutai shan map and key with Tibetan.

Early Political Significance

Figure 5. Chos rgyal ’phags pa (1235-1280).

Tibetan Identification with Wutai shan

Figure 7a. Great White Stūpa (Tayuan si) on

Tibetan Involvement with Wutai shan

Tangut Western Xia (Xixia, 西夏)

Figure 10. Pha dam pa sangs rgyas. Tibet; c.

tradition.31 According to a much later biography, in the pure realm of Five-Peak

Figure 11. Pha dam pa depicted sitting in a

Figure 12. Pha dam pa. Detail from Ma gcig

Mongol Yuan (元) Empire

came to be seen as an imperial emanation of Mañjuśrī.39 Patronage of several

Figure 14. Map, Mongol empire in the

Figure 15. Qubilai Khan. Album Leaf; ink and

On account of this growing interest in Tantric Buddhism among the Mongol

establishment on the mountain.44 He was also said to have founded temples at

biographical painting (Fig.17).48 This painting is one of a set of paintings illustrating

Mongol court construction projects on Wutai shan, such as Southern Mountain

Figure 18. White stūpa & Chinese temple

Figure 19. Great White Stūpa in Beijing.

That blessed Bodhisattva the Emperor Sečen (Qubilai Khan), possessed of

Figure 20a. Juyong Stūpa Gate. Photograph by

Figure 20. Juyong Stūpa Gate. Photograph by

Tuttle questions the identification of the bodhisattva mentioned in this inscription

Chinese Ming (明) Dynasty

Figure 22a. Clear Understanding Monastery

Figure 24. “Iron Bridge Man” Thang stong

nāmasaṃgīti) to an eager congregation of (Chinese?) meditators.66 Thang stong

Second Conversion of the Mongols

Manchu Qing (清) Dynasty

Manchus as Inheritors of the Mongol Legacy

empire in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.75 The Manchu rulers, by

Divine Rite to Rule: Emperor as Mañjuśrī

Then Mañjuśrī, the savior of all

Tibeto-Mongolian Control of Wutai shan

Art and Politics: Lcang skya rol pa’i rdo rje

Figure 30. Qianlong emperor as Mañjuśrī,

Figure 31. Ding Guangpeng. The Shuxiang

Portraits of Emperor as Mañjuśrī

Ṭīkṣṇa-Mañjuśrī, the great being (mahātma) who manifests as lord of men,

Royal Inheritance through Reincarnation in Tibet: The Fifth Dalai Lama

Figure 32. Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngag dbang blo

Such use of royal Buddhist imagery

Sixth Dalai Lama’s Exile on Wutai shan

Tibetan and Mongolian Monasteries on Wutai shan

This meeting and mixing of Chinese

Mongol Interests in Wutai shan

“Wutai shan: Pilgrimage to Five-Peak Mountain” Catalog

Serigün tungγalaγ aγula-yin oron-u jokiyal

A masked dance procession, the focus