Mountain Wutai

The sacred mountain Wutaishan, located in Shanxi Province, China, is believed to be the earthly abode of the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, Manjushri, and for a thousand years it has been a focus of transnational pilgrimage for the Chinese, Tibetans, Mongols, and Manchus alike.

This multi-culturalism, endemic of Himalayan art, is reflected in the objects in the exhibition coming from Nepal, Tibet, Mongolia, and China, including paintings, sculptures, masks, book covers and features a six-foot wide woodblock print, a panoramic view of Mount Wutai filled with temples and miraculous visions. As Manjushri was seen as the patron deity of China, Wutaishan was also a focus of imperial attention, and rulers tied their own legitimacy to this deity and promoted his cult at Mount Wutai, blurring and intertwining religious, state, ethnic, and even artistic identity.

Wutaishan: Pilgrimage to Five Peak Mountain is the first exhibition of its kind: combining historical and visual materials related to Wutaishan in a multidisciplinary approach, highlighting the period when the mountain reached a peak of cultural confluence in the 18th and 19th centuries. As Wutaishan is located in China, this exhibition clearly demonstrates that the importance of Himalayan art extends well outside the traditionally narrow confines of the geographic Himalayas.

Mount Wutai is home to some of the oldest existent wooden buildings in China that have survived since the era of the Tang Dynasty (618–907). This includes the main hall of Nanchan Monastery and the East Hall of Fuguang Monastery, built in 782 and 857, respectively. They were discovered in 1937 and 1938 by a team of architectural historians including the prominent early 20th century historian Liang Sicheng. The architectural designs of these buildings have since been studied by leading sinologists and experts in traditional Chinese architecture, such as Nancy Steinhardt. Steinhardt classified these buildings according to the hall types featured in the Yingzao Fashi Chinese building manual written in the 12th century.

In 2008 Chinese authorities hope that the shrine at Mount Wutai will be considered for designation as a Unesco world heritage site.