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Popular
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| Emei
Shan |
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Southwest
of the Sichuan basin, about 150 kilometers from Chengdu, the town of Emei
is snuggled at the foot of the Emei Shan, one of China’s four sacred Buddhist
mountains. It is about a three-hour bus ride from Chengdu while a three-day
round trip should be sufficient for the serious pilgrim to make it to
the top. Most visitors would not have as much time on their hands and
would therefore prefer taking a minibus to Qingyin Pavilion from
where a ten hour climb will take you to the 10,000 Buddha Summit.
Alternatively one could opt for a minibus trip all the way to Jieyin
Hall and then take a cable car ride to the top without breaking out
a sweat.
The entire
route from Qingyin Pavilion to the 10,000 Buddha Summit at the
height of 3099 meters passes Wannian Temple, Xixiang Pond,
Jieyin Hall and the Golden Summit. The return descent is pretty
much the same except that it turns west to Xi’anfeng Temple after
Xixiang Pond.
Baoguo
Monastery, at the base of the mountain, was built in the 16th Century
on a slope with four halls built on top of one another. There is also
a library of sutras and a huge porcelain Buddha. Further up, in a forested
part of the mountain, lies the Monastery of the Lurking Tiger (fuhu
si) which is home to a 7 meter high engraved copper pagoda.
These two
monasteries are among the twenty or so monasteries that can still be visited.
Over 2000 years, approximately 150 monasteries were built in this area
but most have fallen into disrepair and disuse while some have been completely
destroyed.
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