Wudang Lamasery Tibetan Buddhist Chanting and Rites

Founded under the Kangxi reign of the Qing dynasty, Wudang Lamasery is one of the largest Gelug-school Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in Inner Mongolia, ranked with the Potala, Kumbum and Labrang as the four great lamaseries of Chinese Lamaism. The monks chant the morning sutra each day, and from the twenty-fifth of the seventh lunar month to the first of the eighth they hold a temple fair in which the whole assembly chants the Mani sutra in the Suguchen Hall, then at dusk circles the monastery holding prayer wheels, sounding ritual horns and beating sheepskin drums in a distinctive religious folk tradition.

The chanting follows Tibetan scriptures and Gelug liturgy, the monks singing together in a deep, resonant mass, and scriptural debate is held in the square before the Dongkuer Hall; during the fair there are also cham masked-dance rites, uniting religion, art and folk custom.

The chanting and rites of Wudang Lamasery carry the history of Tibetan Buddhism's spread through Mongolian lands and the exchange between Mongolian and Tibetan culture, a living specimen for the study of Inner Mongolia's religious folklore and architectural art.