Mount Fanjing, the fifth most famous Buddhist mountain, is also the life-saving Noah's Ark

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Four (five) famous Buddhist mountains (to be continued...):

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There are four famous Buddhist mountains in my country, which are the dojos of four Bodhisattvas: Guanyin is located in Putuo, Zhejiang, Manjusri is located in Wutai, Shanxi, Samantabhadra is located in Emei, Sichuan, and Dizang is located in Jiuhua, Anhui.

The "Four Great Mountains" are recognized Buddhist holy places by the Chinese people. However, there is also a saying of "Five Famous Buddhist Mountains". It is unclear whether the fifth is Fanjing Mountain in Guizhou or Xuedou Mountain in Zhejiang.

Both Fanjing Mountain and Xuedou Mountain are the ashrams of Maitreya Buddha. From the perspective of its origin with Maitreya Buddha, Xuedou Mountain is located in Fenghua, Ningbo, Zhejiang. According to folklore, the Budai monk who was the incarnation of Maitreya Buddha was also born here, and he often lived here. Xuedou Temple promotes Buddhism. From this point of view, Xuedou Mountain seems to be more qualified to become a Maitreya temple.

(The statue of Maitreya Buddha in Xuedou Mountain is the largest sitting copper Maitreya statue in the world)

In the Buddhist world view, Maitreya Buddha is also called "future Buddha", who will take over the world where mortals live after the current Buddha - Sakyamuni, and from the past Buddha - the ancient Buddha of burning lamps, through Sakyamuni Buddha, When it comes to Maitreya Buddha, the world of mother-in-law has to go through the three major kalpas: solemn kalpa, virtuous kalpa and star constellation kalpa. A small kalpa, a small kalpa is 16 million years, a medium kalpa is 640 million years, and a major kalpa is 51.2 billion years!

The religious world view is not necessarily scientific, but we can learn from it that the day when Maitreya Buddha returns is very far away from us. For such a long time, if it is a monastery that cannot withstand the vicissitudes of life, it will definitely not survive the future.

From this point of view, Mount Fanjing, which has stood proudly for more than 1 billion years, has literally passed through vicissitudes of life—it was an ocean 800 million years ago—and is the most likely to welcome Maitreya with a tall and straight posture. The Dojo of the Second Coming of the Buddha.

On the top of Mount Fanjing, there are the Old Golden Dome and the Red Cloud Golden Dome, which enshrine the ancient Buddha, Sakyamuni Buddha and Maitreya Buddha respectively. The Buddha of the Third Age in the cloud overlooks the past, present and future of all living beings, just like the experience of Tongtian Fanjing Mountain. Follow the yesterday, today and tomorrow of the planet under your feet...

(The picture below is from the Internet)

In today's article, we will climb the majestic Fanjing Mountain to appreciate its mystery, magnificence, charm and spirituality...

Fanjing Mountain is located in Tongren in the northeast of Guizhou. It borders on the west of Hunan and is not far from Zhangjiajie. From Zhangjiajie to the south, through Huaihua and then to the west, you will reach Fanjing Mountain. Fanjing Mountain and Zhangjiajie Peak Forest both belong to the Wuling Mountains at the intersection of Hubei, Hunan, Guizhou and Chongqing. The peaks and forests are far higher than Zhangjiajie, even the "Hallelujah Mountain" and "South Tianzhu" that the latter is proud of are incomparable. In fact, Fanjing Mountain is the highest peak in the entire Wuling Mountains stretching 420 kilometers.

If you climb to the highest main peak in clear weather and look at the small mountains around you, it is a broad-minded and comfortable experience. Chiping" has caused "there is no clear sky for three days": when the cold air travels over mountains and ridges and travels long distances to come here, the heavy barriers consume their strength, so their momentum weakens and their movement slows down, forming a "quasi-stationary front". Clouds and rain layers continue to accumulate, and rain has become the norm.

On the day I went, there was no sun, and it didn’t rain. The fellow tourist said that he had been waiting for two days, and it was rainy. He climbed the mountain while there was no rain. It seemed that he would not be able to wait for a sunny day. There is no rain at the bottom of the mountain, but there are constant showers on the mountain, and the clouds are shrouded in mist. I can't experience the broad-minded view of the scenery, but the difficulty of climbing the mountain is impressive.

You can start from Yinjiang County on the west side or Jiangkou County on the south side to climb Fanjing Mountain. The scenery on the west line is better, but the whole journey is difficult on foot. You can take scenic cars and cableways on the south line. There are also some steeper steps to climb. Due to the bad weather that day, several scenic spots on the west line that needed to be seen from a distance could not be seen, so I chose the south line to go up the mountain.

(Passing by Longquan Temple on the way up the mountain, the Maitreya Buddha on the top of the temple is eye-catching)

Not far from the parking spot is a wooden plank road with a total length of 750 meters, which is the only path for hiking. It is already at the cloud line above 2100 meters above sea level, and you can enjoy the natural beauty of the virgin jungle of Fanjing Mountain along the way.

Looking as far as the eye can see, it is the green plants in the vast mist. Since then, the southeast monsoon from the Pacific Ocean and the southwest monsoon from the Indian Ocean have converged, and the warm and humid air flow has condensed and condensed into abundant precipitation. As a result, the precipitation of Fanjing Mountain in the interior of the mainland is equivalent to that of the area with the richest monsoon precipitation in the southeast coast. , the metamorphic rocks that make up Mount Fanjing are difficult to dissolve, and precipitation forms streams and rivers on the surface. In addition, it is located in the subtropical zone, and the superior hydrothermal conditions provide an excellent environment for the survival of animals and plants.

There are 4.2 square kilometers of virgin forest here, with rich plant species. From low to high, there are evergreen broad-leaved forest, deciduous broad-leaved mixed forest, deciduous broad-leaved forest and other forest belts. The species include Rhododendron forest, Qinggang forest, maple tree, Mountain cherry, arrow bamboo forest, etc., as well as the unique fir remnant community of Fanjing Mountain and the living fossil of the plant kingdom - Davidia involucrata. In addition, there are many rare animals that make their home here, such as the white-necked long-tailed pheasant, a special bird in China, and the Guizhou golden monkey, a national first-class protected animal.

It is necessary to say a few more words about Guizhou snub-nosed monkey. The distribution range of this kind of animal is very narrow, it only exists in Mount Fanjing, and the number is extremely rare, only about 750, even rarer than giant pandas. They only survive in the isolated island of Mount Fanjing, so they are called "the only child in the world" by scientists.

(Guizhou golden monkey, the picture comes from the Internet)

Why can this "isolated island" of Fanjing Mountain become the last home of some living beings?

Since 2.6 million years ago, whenever the ice age came and the global temperature dropped sharply, some animals and plants disappeared because they could not adapt to the cold. The vertical altitude of Mount Fanjing of several kilometers spans the middle subtropical, northern subtropical, warm temperate and There are four temperature zones in the middle temperate zone, which is equivalent to a change of thousands of kilometers in horizontal distance. When the weather is cold, plants that originally lived at high altitudes gradually migrate to warmer low places. Moving back and forth, one by one, the ancient species can be continued, and the relic species in the primeval forest can be preserved. With the arrival of the last ice age, human activities greatly increased, and the ecology around Fanjing Mountain was severely damaged. At this time, Fanjing Mountain extended a helping hand and became a sanctuary for animals and plants. Therefore, Guizhou golden monkeys inhabit Fanjing Mountain .

Most of the landforms in Guizhou are karst, which is caused by the erosion of carbonatite by flowing water. Only Mount Fanjing is composed of metamorphic rocks that are not easy to dissolve. This may be the only island cast by God in a karst ocean. It is a ship that saves lives. Noah's Ark.

(Guizhou golden monkey, the picture comes from the Internet)

The golden snub-nosed monkey is alert and cautious, and it is not easy to encounter it on the way up the mountain, but when it meets the bold tits below, it wanders around for food at the feet of the bustling tourists. The arrogance of "fans" makes people feel affectionate, and tourists are actively avoiding them, so as not to destroy this hard-won "arrogance".

At the end of the boardwalk is a group of jagged and strange rocks, looming in the misty sea, like tables, boots, caterpillars... in various poses and with different expressions, ghosts and ghosts.

Does the rock below look like a slowly wriggling caterpillar?

Eagle's mouth stone:

These stones themselves are a major landscape of Mount Fanjing, the most famous of which is called "Mushroom Stone", which is a landmark scenic spot of Mount Fanjing and even Guizhou. This stone is a square stone pillar formed by sandy slate and quartz sandstone. It is about 10 meters high. It is covered by a square boulder dislocation on top of a rectangular boulder. The top is large and the bottom is small, shaped like a mushroom. It looks slim and graceful, as if it will fall when the wind blows, but in fact it has stood still for hundreds of millions of years in the wind, frost, rain and snow.

Viewed from different angles, Mushroom Stone looks like a thumbs up, praising the majestic mountain. It is said that Yan Yinliang, a great calligrapher in the Qing Dynasty, was inspired to write "Qianshan No. 1" from this.

Another strange stone is called "Fantian Seal". There is a flat stone platform on the top of the cliff, and a huge stone is like a huge seal upside down on it.

On the west side of the strange stone is the Nine Emperor Cave. According to legend, there was a female Buddhist who practiced in the cave in ancient times. "Nine Emperor Empress".

In the Ming Dynasty, the Queen Mother Li, the mother of Shenzong, persuaded Shenzong to order to rebuild the fairy mountain, and the Maitreya Taoist Temple on Fanjing Mountain began to flourish. People combined her body with the Nine Emperor Empresses to commemorate the reverence for the mother of Shenzong. It is enshrined in Jiuhuang Cave.

To the west of Jiuhuang Cave is Wanming Cave. Believers who climbed to the top of Fanjing Mountain often put small stones engraved with their names into Wanming Cave for blessings. It is called "Wanming Cave".

Down a section of steep steps from Wanming Cave, you come to a dilapidated temple called "Guan Guo Temple". It looks like an inconspicuous ruin, but it keeps burning incense. The mythical beast seen in the mountains. Later, experts came here for research and found that the mythical beast mentioned by the villagers is actually the Guizhou golden monkey.

Climbing to the west, we came to the highest point of the trip - the old Jinding at an altitude of 2494 meters.

The old Jinding building is not as magnificent as other famous mountain top buildings. There is only a simple temple called "Dengdeng Temple", which enshrines the past Buddha - the ancient Buddha of Diengdeng. The climbing process was really not easy, it was steep and slippery, but the top of the mountain was shrouded in thick clouds and mist, and I couldn't see the scenery in the distance, so I was a little discouraged.

I couldn't see the scenery, so I only stayed at the old Jinding for a while. When I came down, I passed a cliff. The lines on the cliffs on both sides looked like book pages stacked up. The landscape here is called "ten thousand volumes of scriptures". According to legend, Tang Monk came back from the west to learn Buddhist scriptures and made a special trip to Fanjing Mountain to pay homage to Maitreya Buddha. Because the white dragon horse accidentally stumbled and scattered a stack of scriptures, the scriptures took root here, which became the wonder of "ten thousand volumes of scriptures".

Another commanding height of Mount Fanjing is Hongyun Jinding. There is a Buddha worship platform in the lowland between the two Jinding. Good viewpoint.

However, that day I couldn’t see clearly even 10 meters away, let alone Wanmi Sleeping Buddha. I found a picture from the Internet, which is still very spectacular. The Sleeping Buddha is the outline of a mountain range. It is 10,000 meters long and looks like a Maitreya with a big belly. Therefore, for a long time, the local people called Fanjing Mountain "Big Buddha Mountain", just like Lingyun Mountain where the Leshan Giant Buddha is located. It also looks like a sleeping Buddha, the mountain is a Buddha, and the Buddha is a mountain.

Not far from the east side of the Buddha worship platform, there is a monk tower, which is the tomb tower of Master Mingran Rutai in the Ming Dynasty. Mingran Rutai (1600-1677) was the master of Zen Buddhism in Guizhou and the fifth generation abbot of the Miaoxuan Zen School in Fanjingshan.

Next, you will climb to the Red Cloud Golden Summit, which is the most difficult and dangerous part of your trip to Fanjing Mountain. In fact, the distance is not too long, but the height difference is only 100 meters, but this 100 meters makes people climb for nearly an hour.

Why so slow?

Because this section of the stone ladder surrounding the mountain is extremely narrow, it is so narrow that only one person can pass through in many places, and it needs to pass sideways. Those who are larger than ordinary people should not think about climbing the Golden Summit; it is extremely steep, and the steepest place is said to be 90 degrees. It's a bit exaggerated, but it's true that it's close to vertical. There are iron chains hanging all the way. Climbers need to use both hands and feet. If you don't hold the iron chains, it's difficult to climb the high and steep stone stairs; plus it's rainy and slippery, there are many people , More than half of the time was spent waiting in line.

On the way, we passed a stone cave on the cliff, called "Guanyin Cave", in which Guanyin Bodhisattva is enshrined, and below the cave is a deep valley. Guanyin Cave is also called "Daer Cave". It is said that devout men and women who have not given birth for a long time kowtow three times to the golden top, and then throw a small stone into this cave.

Exhausting patience and physical strength, I finally saw the stone bridge connecting the two peaks, and the peak will arrive soon.

Hongyun Jinding is 2,336 meters above sea level. The rising peak is divided into two parts on the upper part, connected by a bridge. The two peaks each have a temple dedicated to the present Buddha Sakyamuni and the future Buddha Maitreya. The past Buddha on the top lights up the ancient Buddha, and the Buddha of the third generation is complete.

The Sakyamuni Hall and the Maitreya Hall are also two simple stone houses. The doors of the halls are locked, the Buddha statues are invisible, and the scenery in the fog is also invisible. However, there are still many tourists who have worked hard to climb here, and some may hold the belief of worship. , more may be like me, with the unwillingness of "everything has come".

The reason why it is called "Red Cloud Golden Summit" is because at sunrise, the auspicious aura of red clouds often circles around, and the Zen fog and Buddha light are fascinating, but on the day I climbed to the top, there was no Buddha light and Zen fog, only the face to face and the vast white mist more than ten meters away.

The area of ​​the top of the mountain is too small to build magnificent temples, so the main temples of Mount Fanjing are all on the mountainside or at the bottom of the mountain, among which Cheng'en Temple is the main temple of Mount Fanjing.

Cheng'en Temple is located on the side of Pudu Square under the Golden Dome, facing a deep valley of more than 1,000 meters. When it is sunny, you can have a panoramic view of the wind and clouds. It is also a good viewing spot.

Cheng'en Temple was originally named "Tongming Hall", dedicated to the bright Maitreya Buddha, and was later destroyed in the war. In the 46th year of Ming Wanli, Emperor Shenzong renamed it "Cheng'en Temple" when it was built. Dojo" of the "Zhenshan Seal".

Cheng'en Temple is connected to the Tianjie down the mountain. On the Tianjie, there are Jingxin Pool where Guanyin sits and Wanbaoyan, a geological wonder.

The Jingxin Pool is for those who worship the Buddha to drink from the spring and wash their faces, which means that they can wash away their troubles and distracting thoughts, and show their devotion and purity of heart.

Wanbaoyan is a seemingly ordinary mountain rock. Because the gravels inlaid on it are of different shapes and look like treasures, people call it "Wanbaoyan". There are also rich and diverse plants growing on this stone, just like a small ecological circle.

The lower the altitude, the thinner the fog, and at the foot of the mountain, where the streams are gurgling and the flowers and trees are hidden, Fanjing Mountain shows a beautiful and pleasant side.

I think the little regret left by my trip to Mount Fanjing may be that nature has no regrets for creatures such as golden monkeys, pigeon flowers, and long-tailed pheasants. The towering majesty and the sea of ​​fog have raised the threshold for people to get close to it; in terms of horizontal time, this lonely mountain hidden deep in the southwestern hinterland of China originated in the Tang Dynasty, developed in the Song Dynasty, flourished in the Ming Dynasty, and finally became popular in the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. The period fell silent, and history coincidentally made it fade out of view when human beings were most destructive. In the case of the ecological environment being destroyed, the biological corridors from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, the Jiangnan hills to the mountains of Taiwan were completely severed. In a crisis, it acts as a pure land to protect the living beings.

Mount Fanjing means "Pure Land of Brahma". I hope we can protect this pure land in an era that attracts worldwide attention again, so that the golden monkeys can go to a wider world, and the proud tits can always be proud.. ....