Buddhist music with a 1000-year history

By Fang Sha ( chinadaily.com.cn )

Updated: 2015-01-16

The Buddhists play Buddhism music in their residential area in the Zhenhai Temple, Mount Wutai, Jan 8. [Photo by Wang Yanjun/wutaishan.city.sohu.com]

Buddhists on Mount Wutai, near the city of Xinzhou, in Shanxi province have kept traditions alive, including the music of ceremonies, and Chinanews.com's Wang Yanjun was fortunate enough to enjoy watching a group of monks playing a range of instruments at the mountain's Zhenhai Temple, on Jan 8, and the quietude and peace that the music brought.

And, Wang informs us, this scene previously could be seen at all of the many temples atop the mountain, but, as time moves on, fewer are keeping the tradition alive, and the music faces a serious challenge of disappearing altogether.

Nonetheless, music is a compulsory course for all the monks on the mountain and during tourism's off season, they are free of the tourists and can concentrate on their scriptures and the cultivation of inner peace through Buddhist music. The solemn tones of the mountain's music represents a kind of northern Buddhist music, which incorporates both Han and Tibetan Buddhist characteristics and originated in ancient India and is referred to as a"living fossil".