Mount Emei

Relevance to Buddhism

Chinese people offer burning sandalwood near the mountain to send their "prayers to heaven".

As a sacred mountain

Mount Emei is one of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China, and is traditionally regarded as the bodhimaṇḍa, or place of enlightenment, of the Bodhisattva Puxian (普賢菩薩; Samantabhadra).

Historical documents from the 16th and 17th centuries allude to the practice of martial arts in the monasteries of Mount Emei. These documents contain the earliest surviving reference to the Shaolin Monastery as the place of origin of Chinese martial arts.

Chinese Buddhist pilgrims regularly travel to the mountain.

Buddhist architecture on Emei

This is the location of the first Buddhist temple built in China in the 1st century CE. The site has seventy-six Buddhist monasteries of the Ming and Qing dynasties, most of them located near the mountain top. The monasteries demonstrate a flexible architectural style that adapts to the landscape. Some, such as the halls of Baoguosi, are built on terraces of varying levels, while others, including the structures of Leiyinsi, are on raised stilts. Here the fixed plans of Buddhist monasteries of earlier periods were modified or ignored in order to make full use of the natural scenery. The buildings of Qingyinge are laid out in an irregular plot on the narrow piece of land between the Black Dragon River and the White Dragon River. The site is large and the winding footpath is 50 km (31 mi) long, taking several days to walk.

Cable cars ease the ascent to the two temples at Jinding (3,077 m), an hour's hike from the mountain's peak.

Climate

The summit of Mount Emei has an alpine subarctic climate (Köppen Dwc), with long, cold (but not severely so) winters, and short, cool summers. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from −5.7 °C (21.7 °F) in January to 11.6 °C (52.9 °F) in July, and the annual mean is 3.07 °C (37.5 °F). Precipitation is common year-round (occurring on more than 250 days), but due to the influence of the monsoon, rainfall is especially heavy in summer, and more than 70% of the annual total occurs from June to September.

Flora

The flora of Mount Emei varies with elevation, from subtropical evergreen forests at lower elevations to subalpine shrubland around the summit. The mountain is notable for both its species richness and abundance of endemic plants.

At lower elevations Mount Emei is home to the largest, most intact stands of the native Sichuan Basin evergreen broadleaf forest that once covered the Sichuan Basin. Subtropical oaks, Schima, a tree in the tea family, and laurels of the genera Machilus, Lindera, Litsea, Cinnamomum, and Phoebe are the predominant trees. Above 1500 meters elevation the subtropical evergreen forests transition to mixed evergreen and deciduous broadleaf forests, then mixed broadleaf deciduous and conifer forests and subalpine conifer forests, with subalpine shrubland above 2800 meters elevation.

The mountain is known for its high level of endemism, and approximately 100 plant species have been described as endemic to the area. These include Abies fabri, a rare species of fir tree, and Magnolia omeiensis, a species of magnolia tree.

Fauna

About 2,300 animal species have been recorded on the mountain, including 51 mammals, 256 birds, 34 reptiles, 33 amphibians, 60 fish, 42 oligochaetes, and over 1000 insects. Native mammals include the lesser or red panda (Ailurus fulgens), Asian golden cat (Catopuma temminckii), Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus), and mainland serow (Capricornis sumatraensis).

Visitors to Mount Emei often see Tibetan macaques taking food from tourists. A one-armed female macaque named Xing Xing has appeared in popular online videos that show her taking food while ignoring tourists. An elderly resident living on the mountain and her son are able to approach, feed, and pet Xing Xing, who accepts their food while rejecting offers from strangers. If tourists continue to hold food near the macaques, the animals may grab at clothing, stare, or bite if provoked. Local merchants sell nuts and other foods for tourists to feed the macaques.

Limited-range and threatened birds include the golden-fronted fulvetta (Schoeniparus variegaticeps), grey-hooded parrotbill (Suthora zappeyi), three-toed parrotbill (Paradoxornis paradoxus), Emei Shan liocichla (Liocichla omeiensis), red-winged laughingthrush (Trochalopteron formosum), Omei warbler (Phylloscopus omeiensis), Emei leaf warbler (Phylloscopus emeiensis), rusty-breasted tit (Poecile davidi), and slaty bunting (Emberiza siemsseni).

Native amphibians include the Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus) and Omei toothed toad (Oreolalax omeimontis). There are at least six snake species native to the region, including the Chinese slug snake, Mandarin ratsnake, mountain water snake, Peters' odd-scaled snake, plus some potently venomous species, such as the Chinese green tree viper, the brown spotted pitviper and the Taiwan mountain pitviper. Other local animals include lizards, such as the Indian forest skink and the lacerta Takydromus intermedius, the frogs Rana adenopleura and Vibrissaphora liui, and a giant, half-metre long earthworm species, Pheretima praepinguis.