World Heritage Identification Number: 1279
World Heritage since: 2009
Category: Cultural Heritage
WHE Type: Natural Landscapes & Geographic Features
Transboundary Heritage: No
Endangered Heritage: No
Country: 🇨🇳 China
Continent: Asia
UNESCO World Region: Asia and the Pacific
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Sacred Buddhist Mountain: An Exploration of Mount Wutai
Mount Wutai, officially named Wutaishan and colloquially referred to as Mount Qingliang, is a significant cultural landscape located in the Shanxi Province of China. This sacred Buddhist mountain stands out as the highest in Northern China, boasting a unique morphology characterized by steep, treeless peaks arranged in a cardinal direction pattern. The central area of Mount Wutai is encompassed by a cluster of these flat-topped peaks or mesas.
More to come…UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site
With its five flat peaks, Mount Wutai is a sacred Buddhist mountain. The cultural landscape is home to forty-one monasteries and includes the East Main Hall of Foguang Temple, the highest surviving timber building of the Tang dynasty, with life-size clay sculptures. It also features the Ming dynasty Shuxiang Temple with a huge complex of 500 statues representing Buddhist stories woven into three-dimensional pictures of mountains and water. Overall, the buildings on the site catalogue the way in which Buddhist architecture developed and influenced palace building in China for over a millennium. Mount Wutai, literally, 'the five terrace mountain', is the highest in Northern China and is remarkable for its morphology of precipitous slopes with five open treeless peaks. Temples have been built on this site from the 1st century AD to the early 20th century.
Encyclopedia Record: Mount Wutai
Mount Wutai, also known by its Chinese name Wutaishan and as Mount Qingliang, is a sacred Buddhist site at the headwaters of the Qingshui in Shanxi Province, China. Its central area is surrounded by a cluster of flat-topped peaks or mesas roughly corresponding to the cardinal directions. The north peak is the highest and is also the highest point in North China.Additional Site Details
Area: 18,415 hectares
(iii) — Unique or exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition
(iv) — Outstanding example of a type of building or landscape
(vi) — Directly associated with events or living traditions
Coordinates: 39.0305555556 , 113.5633333333
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© G41rn8, CC BY-SA 4.0 Resized from original. (This derivative is under the same CC BY-SA license.)
