Mountain of One Thousand Buddhas-20150520-RM-110702

The Thousand Buddha Mountain ( zh, c=, p=Qiānfó Shān) is a hill located about 2.5 kilometers southeast of the city of

Jinan Jinan is the capital of the province of Shandong in East China. With a population of 9.2 million, it is one of the largest cities in Shandong in terms of population. The area of present-day Jinan has played an important role in the history of ...

, the capital of

Shandong Shandong is a coastal Provinces of China, province in East China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River. It has served as a pivotal cultural ...

Province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. It covers and has a peak of above sea level. It is renowned for its numerous

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...

images which have been carved out of the hill's rock faces or free-standing structures erect since the times of the

Sui dynasty The Sui dynasty ( ) was a short-lived Dynasties of China, Chinese imperial dynasty that ruled from 581 to 618. The re-unification of China proper under the Sui brought the Northern and Southern dynasties era to a close, ending a prolonged peri ...

(581–618) and its Xingguochan Temple. It is considered one of the "Three Greatest Attractions in Jinan" together with Baotu Spring and Daming Lake. It is also one of the 4A-rated Tourist attractions in China. Thousand Buddha Mountain is opened up as a public park in 1959, rated as AAAA-rated Tourist Attractions of China in 2005, and rated as National Park of China in March 2017.

Legend

According to local tradition, the legendary

Emperor Shun Emperor Shun ( zh, c=帝舜, p=Dì Shùn) was a legendary leader of ancient China, regarded by some sources as one of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors being the last of the Five Emperors. Tradition holds that he lived sometime between 229 ...

was credited as opening up the land and cultivating it under the mountain. Thus, the Thousand Buddha Mountain is also known as the Shungeng Hill (meaning the hill where Shun cultivated). According to a legend recounted in the ''Youyang Zazu'' (''Youyang Miscellanies'') by

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

writer Duan Chengshi (800–863), the Thousand Buddha Mountain was originally situated by the sea. The sea god, seeking to keep the mountain in place, secured it with a large lock to prevent the mountain god from relocating it. However, when the lock eventually broke, the mountain was flung through the air to its current location. In homage to this legend, an artwork resembling a large lock and chain has been installed at the mountain's summit.

History

Buddhism became popular in the Jinan area during the reign of Emperor Wen, the founder of the

. With Buddhism, monks came to the area and chiseled Buddha statues out of the flanks of the hill, which was originally called ''Miji Hill'' or ''Li Hill''. A temple, called the ''Thousand Buddha Temple'' (Qianfosi), was founded at the foot of the hill. Eventually, the hill was renamed after the temple into "Thousand Buddha Mountain". One of the old names, ''Li Hill'' (Li Shan), survives in the name of ''Lishan Road'', the major avenue which runs through Jinan towards the Thousand Buddha Mountain in north–south direction.

Main Attractions

The Thousand Buddha Mountain Public Park has been developed extensively for—mostly local tourism—by the creation of access roads and walking paths as well the addition of

amusement park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, and events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central theme, often fea ...

features such as a 600-meter-long

chairlift An elevated passenger ropeway, or chairlift, is a type of aerial lift, which consists of a continuously circulating steel wire rope loop strung between two end terminals and usually over intermediate towers. They are the primary on-hill tran ...

, a summer slide (the "Shun'neng Slide") down the hill, a

kart racing Kart racing or karting is a motorsport discipline using open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on kart circuit, scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on fu ...

track, and numerous souvenir stalls. The major attractions mostly have significant meanings to the spread of Buddhism.

Thousand Buddha Cliff

The Thousand-Buddha Cliff is located on the northern flank of the hill behind the Xingguochan Temple. The foot of the cliff is pierced by four caves, which are named (from west to east): Longquan (meaning Dragon Spring) Cave, Jile (meaning Extremely Happy) Cave, Qianlou Cave, and Luzu Cave. The caves' height ranges from 3 meters down to only 20 centimeters. About 130 Buddha statues which were carved into Thousand-Buddha Cliff during the Sui period remain today, which can trace back for over 1400 years.

Xingguochan Temple

Along with the Buddha statues, temples and other buildings were erected on the hill. The most renowned of these structures is the ''Xingguochan Temple'' ( zh, c=兴国禅寺, p=Xing Guo Chan Si, literally: "Development of the Country Buddhist Temple") which was originally built during the reign of Emperor Taizhong of Tang as an expansion of the Sui-dynasty Qianfo Temple. Further enlargements were undertaken during the

Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...

, but the temple was destroyed by war afterwards. Rebuilding was undertaken in 1468, during the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

. The Guanying Hall, the Foye Hall, and the Thousand-Hands Buddha statue were added during the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

. The temple is located about halfway up the hill and can be reached via 300 stone steps. A large inscription (total area about 15 square meters) cut into the cliff face to the southwest of the identifies it as the "Number One Temple" (Di Yi Mi Hua). The temple's courtyards feature several stone tablets bearing inscriptions from renowned calligraphers. In one of the temple's courtyards stands a sculpture of the legendary

, who is—according to the local tradition—credited with first ploughing the soil in Jinan as well as with inventing the writing brush. Because of its mythological association with Emperor Shun, the Thousand Buddha hill is also known as ''Shungeng Hill''. The main structure of the temple are: Grand Prayer Hall, Guanying Hall,

Dharma Dharma (; , ) is a key concept in various Indian religions. The term ''dharma'' does not have a single, clear Untranslatability, translation and conveys a multifaceted idea. Etymologically, it comes from the Sanskrit ''dhr-'', meaning ''to hold ...

Hall,

Maitreya Maitreya (Sanskrit) or Metteyya (Pali), is a bodhisattva who is regarded as the future Buddhahood, Buddha of this world in all schools of Buddhism, prophesied to become Maitreya Buddha or Metteyya Buddha.Williams, Paul. ''Mahayana Buddhism: Th ...

Hall, and the Buddhist Scripture building. Lishanyuan courtyard, to the east of the temple, is surrounded by sites of worship belonging to

Confucianism Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, Religious Confucianism, religion, theory of government, or way of li ...

Taoism Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', ' ...

, and Buddhism. The names of these buildings are: the Shun and the Luban Ancestral Temples, the Wenchang ("Develop the Culture") Cabinet, and the Yilan Kiosk. The temple has been the site of two annual temple fairs held on the 3rd day of the third month and 9th day of the 9th month of the Chinese

Lunar Calendar A lunar calendar is a calendar based on the monthly cycles of the Moon's phases ( synodic months, lunations), in contrast to solar calendars, whose annual cycles are based on the solar year, and lunisolar calendars, whose lunar months are br ...

since the times of the

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty ( ; zh, c=元朝, p=Yuáncháo), officially the Great Yuan (; Mongolian language, Mongolian: , , literally 'Great Yuan State'), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Div ...

. It was burned down in wars and rebuild during the

. Other notable buildings on the hill are: the ''Pagoda Tree Pavilion'' (Tang dynasty), ''Cloud Passing Zen Temple'', and the ''Tanghuai Kiosk''. Many of the statues on the Thousand Buddha Mountain were damaged or lost during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

, but restoration started in 1979 already. Since then, many new statues have been added. The largest new statues are a 20-meter-tall sitting Maitreya Buddha completed in 2000 and lying Buddha with a

swastika The swastika (卐 or 卍, ) is a symbol used in various Eurasian religions and cultures, as well as a few Indigenous peoples of Africa, African and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, American cultures. In the Western world, it is widely rec ...

on his chest. The latter statue was carved out of

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

in 1996, has a length of 10 meters and weighs approximately 50

tonnes The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the s ...

Myriad Buddha Cave

A major tourist attraction is the ''Myriad Buddha Cave'' (Wanfo Dong) at the foot of the hill's northern slope. Inside the more than 500 meter-long artificial cave, late-20th-century recreations of Buddhist statues from four famous Chinese grottoes (

Dunhuang Dunhuang () is a county-level city in northwestern Gansu Province, Western China. According to the 2010 Chinese census, the city has a population of 186,027, though 2019 estimates put the city's population at about 191,800. Sachu (Dunhuang) was ...

and Maiji Shan in

Gansu Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

Province, Longmen in

Henan Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...

Province, Yun Gang in

Shanxi Shanxi; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanised as Shansi is a Provinces of China, province in North China. Its capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi a ...

Province) are on display. The original artworks were created during the

Northern Wei Wei (), known in historiography as the Northern Wei ( zh, c=北魏, p=Běi Wèi), Tuoba Wei ( zh, c=拓跋魏, p=Tuòbá Wèi), Yuan Wei ( zh, c=元魏, p=Yuán Wèi) and Later Wei ( zh, t=後魏, p=Hòu Wèi), was an Dynasties of China, impe ...

, Tang, and

Song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...

dynasties. According to the operators (information provided on the backside of the entrance ticket as of 2006), around 28,000 Buddhist images are on display inside the cave, the biggest statue—a lying Buddha—is 28 meters long.

Maitreya Garden

Located in the east part of the mountain, the Maitreya Garden was built in 2000 with Japanese Corporate Myokoen as a China-Japan Friendship Garden. The garden covers 30 thousand square meters, including the

statue, Sakura garden, and some other affiliated structures, which is a blend of Chinese and Japanese styles of garden architecture. The whole statue has a height of 30 meters, and is thus known as "the number one largest Buddha north of Yangze River." The information about Maitreya is carved behind the statue on an annular rock face. The carvings are 36 meters long and 3.5 meters high, covering 126 square meters.

Annual Events

Lunar New Year Praying Temple Fair

As one of the most important festivals of the year,

Lunar New Year Lunar New Year is the beginning of a new year based on lunar calendars or, informally, lunisolar calendars. Lunar calendar years begin with a new moon and have a fixed number of lunar months, usually twelve, in contrast to lunisolar calendar ye ...

is the time for Chinese people to pray for good luck for the upcoming year. Every year during Spring Festival, thousands of people visit the Xingguochan Temple to burn incense and pray for their loved ones and for a peaceful year. There is also the temple fair for tourists to feel in flavor of the Spring Festival with folk performances and artifacts. QianfoshanMiaohui

Qixi Festival Blind Dates

During the week of

Qixi Festival The Qixi Festival (), also known as the Qiqiao Festival (), is a Chinese festival celebrating the annual meeting of Zhinü and Niulang in Chinese mythology... The festival is celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh lunisolar month on the ...

, the Chinese Valentine's Day, the park holds blind dates for single men and women from Jinan and other places. Mainly in their twenties or thirties, participants post their information onto the board while searching for ones they have interests in. Parents who wish their children to get married also go up the hill to find a date for their children. By 2019, the event had been held for 13 times.

Double Ninth Festival Temple Fair

The

Double Ninth Festival The Double Ninth Festival is a traditional Chinese holiday observed on the ninth day of the ninth month in the Chinese calendar. According to Wu Jun, it dates back to the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 AD). According to the ''I Ching'', ''nine' ...

is a traditional Chinese festival on the ninth day of the ninth month in

. While it is customary to climbing a high mountain, Thousand Buddha Mountain Scenic Spot holds annual temple fair around that time of the year. Exhibition includes artistic performance, folk handicrafts and local souvenirs, agricultural products, and traditional food and snacks. On the date of the festival in 2019, the total number of tourists reached over 62,000.

Location

The Thousand Buddha Mountain Public Park is flanked by a cemetery honoring the fallen of the

Xinhai Revolution The 1911 Revolution, also known as the Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution, ended China's last imperial dynasty, the Qing dynasty, and led to the establishment of the Republic of China (ROC). The revolution was the culmination of a decade ...

of 1911 on the east side, the former site of Shandong Provincial Museum to the northeast, and the Jinan Botanical Garden on the west side.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.jnqianfoshan.com/index.html History of Shandong Buddhist temples in Shandong Landforms of Shandong Tourist attractions in Jinan Hills of China AAAA-rated tourist attractions Rock art in China