A pure land, a thousand-year mountain
The name “Fanjingshan” comes from “Fanjing — a pure Buddhist land.” As Buddhism flourished here amid its wondrous scenery, it became a place monks longed for, also called “Great Buddha Mountain” among the people. Praised as “chief of all famous mountains,” it is a long-standing Buddhist mountain of southwest China and a renowned Maitreya site.
A Maitreya site
Legend tells that as Shakyamuni entered nirvana, the summit linked to Mount Sumeru split in two and a shaft of golden light burst from the cleft into the sky, illuminating heaven and earth — the origin of Fanjingshan as a Maitreya site. Ancients built halls to Shakyamuni and Maitreya atop the new Golden Summit as an important symbol of the mountain’s Buddhism. Near the old and new summits one can often see the wondrous “Buddha’s halo” and “phantom,” which ancients took as manifestations of Maitreya.
The Imperial Stele
The “Imperial Stele” — formally the Preface to the Reconstruction of the Golden Summit — was granted in the Ming Wanli era and stands below the Old Golden Summit. About 2.9 m tall, it is topped with the two characters “imperially granted,” flanked by coiling-dragon motifs beneath colored clouds; the text is all in regular script, 1,349 characters in total. It records the connection between Maitreya and Fanjingshan and calls the mountain “a boundless dharma realm, a paradise.”
Temples and ruins
- Chengen Temple: built at the very summit above a deep valley, with sweeping views for a hundred li; its main hall bears the inscription “Imperially Granted Chengen Temple,” an important cultural stop on the climb.
- Huguo Temple: temples were numerous over the ages — hundreds large and small, of which the “four imperial temples” and “forty-eight foot temples” were the most famous, Huguo Temple being one of the four imperial temples.
- Shakyamuni and Maitreya Halls: on the summit, first built in the Ming dynasty; Shakyamuni on the left, Maitreya on the right, with a stone bridge across the cleft linking the two.
Buddha’s halo
After rain clears, in the clouds opposite the sun a rainbow ring sometimes appears with a figure at its center that moves as you move; in certain light, a magnified projection may appear in thick mist — the “phantom.” These are remarkable natural sights born of Fanjingshan’s special weather.
