Why in Diqing, Yunnan, there is a saying that in the year of the sheep, the Meili Snow Mountain will be transferred, and in the year of the monkey, it will be transferred to the Bodhidharma Patriarch Cave?

Looking west from Qizong Xiangbi Mountain in Weixi County, Diqing Prefecture, there is a mountain that looks like a huge Buddha sitting between the sky and the sky. This is Bodhidharma Mountain, only 6km away from Qizong. cave temple. "The cliff is ten thousand feet high, and the majestic ancient temple meets the sky." A solemn temple in front of the Patriarch Cave is impressively visible, with red walls and yellow tiles, resplendent and resplendent.

Departing from Tacheng, the car drove on the newly built asphalt road for more than an hour. The mountains and valleys were lush and green all the way, and finally arrived at Laiyuan Temple in Qizong Village outside the Bodhidharma Patriarch's Cave.

It is said that during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Bodhidharma, an eminent monk from India, traveled here to preach the Dharma and preached here. Seeing that this mountain is located between the two rivers (Jinsha River and Lancang River) and looking down on all directions, he built a hut in the rocky mansion on the top of the mountain to practice. , Facing the wall for nine years has achieved a positive result. Up to now, the image of the patriarch's face is still printed on the wall of the cave, and a pair of footprints of the patriarch's "stamped feet into a depression" are deeply printed on the stone slab in front of the cave.

Up to now, the stone wall in the cave still has the image formed when the patriarch faced the wall. There are a pair of deep footprints on the stone slab in front of the cave.

Hence the name of the cave. The cave is 30 meters high and 10 meters deep. The temple is built by stacking wood against the wall, according to the shape of the cave, and chiseling stone frames and wood, forming a unique landscape where the stone cave and the monk's house are integrated. It is far away from Laiyuan Temple and Bodhidharma Temple, which are located on the left and right at the foot of the mountain, forming a three-legged confrontation and leaning on each other. It has become a famous Buddhist holy place.

The statues of Sakyamuni, the Patriarch Padmasambhava, the founder of the Gelug Sect, Tsongkhapa, and the founders of the Drigung Karma Kagyu sect are enshrined in the Sutra Hall. The holy relics of Bodhidharma and the relics of Bodhidharma and his disciples.

Padanba Sangjie (also known as "Dharma"), an eminent Indian monk in the Song Dynasty, went to Tibet five times to spread the Dharma, and for the last time, he went to the west to meditate facing the wall in the Patriarch Cave. At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the local monks and laymen built temples on the wall of the cave in the face of the patriarch according to the mountain, and built a temple on it, forming a complex of more than 40 Buddhist halls and meditation rooms.

In the first year of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (AD 1662), the local monks built the Tibetan Buddhist Karma Kagyu Temple "Dharma Temple" one mile south of the Zushi Cave, and shortly thereafter two miles north of the Zushi Cave. The "Laiyuan Temple", a monastery of the Zhigong Kagyu Sect of Tibetan Buddhism, was built. So far, it has formed a three-legged situation with the Patriarch Cave on the upper side, the Dharma Temple on the south, and the Laiyuan Temple on the north.

Due to the special geographical environment of Patriarch Cave and the magical relationship with the two Bodhidharma masters, it has become a well-known Buddhist holy place. Every year, from the first day to the third day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar, on the legendary Bodhidharma Day, tens of thousands of monks and laymen from far and near gather here to sleep in tents, make pilgrimages to mountains, and burn mulberries and burn incense.

The activity of turning around the mountain in Bodhidharma Patriarch Cave is the most attractive. Starting from the entrance of the cave, it goes around the top of the mountain in a clockwise direction for about 3km. Every year on the first day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar, it is said that it is the day when Bodhidharma became a Buddha. There are tens of thousands of pilgrims from far and near.

At that time, on the banks of the Lapu River and on the Bodhidharma Mountain, "the sound of Sanskrit is continuous at four o'clock, and pilgrims come in succession," which can be said to be the peak of incense and reputation. In Diqing, there is a saying that "in the year of the sheep, turn to Meili Snow Mountain, and in the year of the monkey, turn to Bodhidharma Patriarch Cave".

Ascend to the temple and jump far away, the Jinsha River is like a white Hada, fluttering and winding south; Tacheng Poguan is like a blue dragon, tumbling and leaping towards the river, and the Xiangshan Mountain in front of it stretches out its long trunk. , prostrate at the feet of the Patriarch.