Tag: wutai shan

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Wutaishan’s Panoramic Map-Cifusi

Wutaishan’s panoramic picture of the sacred realm of the mountain of the five terraces and Cifu Ci (慈福寺)

The panoramic picture of the sacred realm of the mountain of the five terraces is a map of Wutai shan, which was craved by a Mongolian lama (Gelong) Lhundrup (act. 1846) in 1846 at Cihusi. A hand-colored print of the woodblocks was purchased by members of a Finnish expedition to Mongolia in 1909. Later on, the print was reproduced in eight sections by the National Board of Antiquities in Helsinki in 1987. This print depicts 130-odd temple sites in the mountain range, accompanied by an equal number of inscriptions, depictions of divine emanations, pilgrimage activities, rituals, and festivals.

The woodblock set serves as the master copy for numerous prints, although colored by different persons. These prints are preserved in various places around the world.

The full description of this print can be found in Wen-shing Chou’s article (pp. 109). This gazetteer map ought to be read in conjunction with texts. This map illustrates the spatial relations alongside a text that itemizes distances, directions, and relative locations in great detail. This map demonstrates in detail the number of bays and halls of large and small monasteries and liberally exaggerates the relative scale of certain portions to match their prominence and openness for public spectacle, therefore, it can be considered as more hierarchical, individuated, and complete assembly of sites than the topographically accurately maps. This map can bee seen as a guide map for visionary encounters.

It may be improper to describe the prints without introducing the monastery where it was produced, which is Cifu Si (慈福寺)

Cifu Si, also called Chantang Yuan[[#_ftn1|[1]]] (禅堂院) is located on a hill behind the Pusa Ding (the Bodhisattva Peak; Manjusri Peak). It was established during the Daoguang regime[[#_ftn2|[2]]] (r. 1820-1850) of the Qing dynasty. Cifu Si should be associated with the woodcut printings, since it was built at the time of the woodblocks’ execution.

This monastery served as the primary lodging center for all Mongolian lamas who made the pilgrimage to Wutaishan. Cihua Si is one of the three (out of seventy or so) monasteries that had no inscription in earlier textual records.

In sum, part of the intention of carving a new map of Wutaishan in Cifu Si was to place Cifu Si in the center of the map and legitimized this monastery as a permanent existence at Wutaishan.

Sources:
Chou, Wen-shing, Ineffable Paths: Mapping Wutaishan in Qing Dynasty China, Art Bulletin, March 2007, Vol. 89 No. 1
http://www.chinawts.com

Entry by Lan Wu 04/16/07
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[[#_ftnref1|[1]]] 禅堂院：Shantang yuan or Chantang yuan, “禅”is a polyphonic character.
[[#_ftnref2|[2]]] According to Chou, the monastery was established in the early years of the Daoguang reign (1821-1851)

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Jasagh Lama

Jasagh Da Lama-Jasagh Lama

The term jasagh or yasa originally designated the law code (sometimes referred to as “army order” or “army law”) developed among the Mongols under Chinggis Khan. In addition to laying out laws in general, the code was concerned with the distribution of power among tribal leaders, princes, etc and is described as having secured “secular” control as opposed to religious law (Togan, 149). In the Qing the term jasagh by itself came to refer to certain of the princes within a Mongol banner. These princes were recognized as the descendents of Chinggis Khan.

The terms jasagh dalama (grand prince of the church) and jasagh lama (prince of the church) evolved from the Mongol terms mentioned above. They were created by the Qing court and conferred on the head monks of imperial monasteries, augmenting traditional Tibetan monastic titles such as khanpo (which lack the secular tone of “prince”). Beginning in the Kangxi period, the Jasagh titles combined religious and secular power, drawing on models of combined religious-secular roles from the Ming and the Yuan. Introduced into the Tibetan/Mongolian Buddhist monastic context (in which a Tibetan lama would typically be placed in charge of a community of Mongolian monks) the titles also served to draw together Tibetan and Mongol concepts of authority. (So the titles were simultaneously secular and religious, and resonated strongly with Tibetans and Mongolians.)

Under the Qing, seven large monasteries run by jasagh lamas were designated banner units. They were distinct from secular banners. As the head of such a banner monastery, the jasagh lama or jasagh dalama had administrative and judicial control. In cases where a reincarnated lama presided over more than 800 people, a Jasagh lama was appointed to take charge of the secular aspects of the banner. (Rawski, 254). The jasagh lamas were especially significant in their roles at Wutaishan and at the imperial monastery Yonghegong in Beijing. Starting in the mid-seventeenth century, with the Fifth Dalai Lama’s visit to Beijing, these titles were conferred on Tibetans or Mongolians by Tibetan officials in Lhasa. The designated monks were often sent from Lhasa and served as important liaisons between the Dalai Lama’s government and the court. In addition to overseeing imperial monasteries, jasagh lamas also taught Tibetan language and Buddhism to the imperial families.

Sources:
Rawski, Evelyn. The Last Emperors: A Social History of Qing Imperial Institutions
Togan, Isenbike. Flexibility and Limitation in Steppe Formations: the Kerait Khanate and Chinggis Khan.
Tuttle, Gray. Tibetan Buddhists in the Making of Modern China
Tuttle, Gray. “Tibetan Buddhist Intermediaries between the Qing Court and the Tibetan Government.” Presented at AAS Annual Meeting, China and Inner Asia Session 37.

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Wutaishan Pusading

Pusading 普薩頂/ Zhenrong yuan 真容院

Pusading, a small monastery located on the summit of Lingjiushan or Vulture Peak Mountain, is the highest point in Taihuai, the valley town between the five terraces of Wutai shan. Pusading has been an ongoing center of pilgrimage and imperial sponsorship since at least the Tang dynasty. According to the Expanded Record of the Clear and Cool Mountains (Guang Qingliang zhuan), compiled about 1057-63, the first temple at the site was Wenshuyuan (Cloister of Manjushri), built by Xiaowen (r. 471-499), emperor of the Northern Wei dynasty (385-534). The same record indicates that though apparitions of Manjushri were known to appear on this peak frequently, it was not until the time of the Tang Emperor Ruizong (662-716) that the temple became home to a sculpted image of Manjushri.

The tale of this sculpted image gave Pusading its other name, Zhenrong yuan, or Cloister of True Countenance. According to the Expanded Record, the reclusive sculptor Ansheng repeatedly failed in attempts to complete an image of Manjushri without cracks. Finally he appealed to the bodhisattva himself and then succeeded in making a perfect image by modeling it after seventy-two manifestations of Manjushri that accompanied him as he completed his work. Thereafter the monastery was known by the name Zhenrong yuan and was patronized by the emperors of successive dynasties until it was renamed during the Ming Yongle reign period as Pusading, or Bodhisattva Peak, also identified as Manjushri Peak.

The Ming Yongle emperor took a great interest in Pusading. The monastery was the site of Dawenshu-dian (大文殊殿), the first temple to house a copy of the Yongle edition of the Tibetan Buddhist canon or Kangyur (bka’ ‘gyur). Today, Dawenshu-dian is also sometimes referred to just as Pusading or Zhenrong yuan. The Ming Yongle emperor ordered the reconstruction of Dawenshu dian and then made an offering to the temple of the first printed copy of his Kangyur edition as soon as it was completed around 1410. There were also two temples on Pusading that housed copies of the Wanli print of the Kangyur, Luohou si bentang (羅喉寺本堂) and the Pule yuan bentang (普樂院本堂). Luohou si now houses the only known exemplar of a forty-two volume supplement to the Wanli Kangyur print, but it is missing two volumes.

The Qing Shunzhi emperor (r.1644-61) renovated Pusading extensively into an official imperial establishment and installed a Tibetan Buddhist lama from Beijing. Local legend says that the Shunzhi emperor staged his death and then took monastic vows at Pusading, and that his son the Kangxi emperor came in search of him there, performing many heroic deeds along the way. Both the Kangxi (1662-1722) and Qianlong (1736-1795) emperors stayed at this monastery during their numerous visits to Wutai shan.


Sources:

Jonathan A. Silk. 1996. Notes on the History of the Yongle Kanjur. In Suhrllekhah: Festgabe für Helmut Eimer. Swisttal-Odendorf: Indica et Tiebtica Verlag.
Wen-shing Chou. “Ineffable Paths: Mapping Wutaishang in Qing Dynasty China,” The Art Bulletin, Mar 2007, 89 (1): pp.108-129.

Entry by Stacey Van Vleet, 2/20/07

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Linggu Si

Linggu Si

In 1407 the Fifth Karmapa, De bzhin gshegs pa or Helima/Halima, traveled to Linggu Si in Nanjing to perform a “mass of universal salvation” (pudu dazhai) at the request of the Ming Yongle emperor. This ceremony honored the Yongle emperor’s late father, the Hongwu emperor, and alleged mother, the Empress Ma. A handscroll of forty-nine scenes, created by the Yongle emperor’s court painters, recorded the auspicious visions and signs said to have been witnessed by all who attended the ceremony. The miraculous displays depicted include multicolored rays of light, rains of flowers, rainbows, and arhats, bodhisattvas and cranes congregating around monastery buildings. The buildings, which include the Linggu Monastery pagoda, a monastic hall that was the Karmapa’s resting place, and the Western Chapel, change position relative to one another and their surroundings in many of the scenes. Patricia Berger argues that the Karmapa’s visit to Linggu Monastery and the ensuing scrolls served to elevate the prestige and sacredness of the cleric, the monastery itself, and the imperial ancestors, as well as to shore up the legitimacy of the Yongle emperor (who, rumor had it, was not the true son of the Empress Ma). The representation of the ceremony and miracles, furthermore, links Linggu Monastery to similar images and events at Mount Wutai, and therefore “urges a utopian, unlocalized interpretation” of the bodhisattvas from Wutai Shan who “appear unbeckoned (and discreetly incognito) in the capital to prop up the Ming heavenly mandate” (Berger 160).


Source:

Berger, Patricia. 2001. “Miracles in Nanjing: An Imperial Record of the Fifth Karmapa’s Visit to the Chinese Capital.” In Cultural Intersections in Later Chinese Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i. Pp. 145-166.

Entry by Stacey Van Vleet, 2/20/07

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The Fifth Karmapa

The Fifth Karmapa

The Fifth Karma-pa, (1384~1415), De-Bzhin gShegs-pa or Helima (Halima) (Chin.: 哈立麻), is the reincarnated head of the Black –Hat (Zwa-nag) Karmapas. The fifth Karma-pa was invited by Yongle emperor (Zhu Di, 朱棣) of the Ming dynasty in 1407, to perform a mass of universal salvation (pudu dazhai) at Linggu Monastery in honor of the Yongle emperor’s late father, the Hongwu emperor, and his late putative mother, the Empress Ma. The Fifth Karma-pa received a title “Rulai dabao fawang xitian dashan zizai fo” (Chin.:如來大寳法王西天大善自在佛; Tathagata, Great and Precious Dharma King, Great Goodness of the Western Heaven, Self-Abiding Buddha) during his stay in Nanjing.

What is worth noting is that the title “dabao fawang” (Chin.: 大寳法王) was initially bestowed by Mongol’s Yuan court to Phags-pa (1235-1280), a member of the Sakya sect of Buddhism. That two distinct figures who represent two sectarian traditions in Tibet received the same imperial title from Yuan and Ming dynasty respectively suggests that the title “dabao fawang” was an emblem of importance of Tibetan Buddhism for both Yuan and Ming dynasties in terms of legitimacy. The Yongle emperor’s uncertain origin and his usurping the power made it necessary for him to employ Tibetan Buddhism (then, called Buddhism without any qualifications) for the purpose of legitimacy. Sources from both Tibetan and Chinese sides glorify, or rather, apotheosize the Fifth Karma-pa and his visit. The Fifth Karma-pa, at a matter of fact, was destined to perform the magical powers from the Tibetan’s perspective, because he was the fifth exponent of a lineage of lamas especially noted for their ecstatic visions and magical powers. A silk handscroll that was first kept in Tsurphu Monastery and transferred to Norbulingkha in Lhasa afterwards illustrates the Fifth Karma-pa’s visit to Nanjing. By adding glory to the emperor and the Fifth Karma-pa, the surreal, magical signs that were described in historical records in both China and Tibet were translated into a non-Buddhist idiom and made to serve the legitimation of imperial power.

However, it would be oversimplified to suggest that the Fifth Karma-pa’s visit to Nanking, the capital of Ming dynasty and Mt. Wutai afterwards was merely a religious activity. During the early Ming dynasty, the Ming government might have been trying to obtain horses in Khams, fighting Tibetan tribes in A-mdo and drawing support from Tibetan Buddhism in a hope of legitimizing the newly usurped throne (in the case of Yongle emperor, particularly.) These aspects of the visit of The Fifth Karma-pa and the role of Tibetan Buddhism in early Ming dynasty deserve more attention.

Sources:
Berger, Patricia, Miracles in Nanjing: An Imperial Record of the Fifth Karmapa’s Visit to the Chinese Capital, Cultural Intersections in Later Chinese Buddhism, UH.P. 200
Sperling, Elliot, The 5th Karma-pa and Some Aspects of the Relationship Between Tibet and Early Ming, Tibetan Studies in honor of High Richardson: Proceedings of the International Seminar of Tibetan Studies, Oxford 1979, Warminster: Aris & Phillips Ltd. & Did the Early Ming Emperors Attempt to Implement A “Divide and Rule” Policy in Tibet?, Contributions on Tibetan Language, History and Culture, Wien, 1983 & Si-tu Chos-kyi rgyal-mtshan and the Ming Court, Lungta 13, Winter 2000
Silk, Jonathan A, Notes on the History of the Yongle Kanjur, Suhrllekhah: Festgabe für Helmut Eimer. Swisttal-Odendorf: Indica et Tiebtica Verlag, 1996

Entry by Lan Wu, 2/18/ 07

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