Emei Facts

Map of Emei from 1938

Unesco World Heritage site since 1996.

9.519722° N, 103.3325° E

Highest summit: Wanfo Ding (10,000 Buddha Summit) 3099 m.

Middle summit: Qianfo Ding (1,000 Buddha Summit) 3085 m?

Tourist/traditional summit: Jinding (Golden Summit) 3077 m.

Some sources claim Jinding and Qianfoding to be the same summit, others that there are three separate summits. In actuality there seems to be two main summits with a small outcropping between them. But is this Qianfoding or something unnamed? Please enlighten me anyone who knows!

Emei Moutain is one of the Four Buddhist Holy Mountains of China (The other three being Wutaishan, Putuoshan and Jiuhua Shan).

The patron saint or house boddhisattva of Emei is Samantabhadra (Puxian 普贤菩萨 in Chinese). Puxian is the Boddhisattva of Action and the Protector of the Lotus Sutra.

The meaning of the name Emei 峨嵋山 is subject to much speculation. Emei is said to mean "high" or "lofty" but has traditionally been translated as "silkworm-moth eyebrows". According to James M. Hargett in his excellent definitive book on Emei Mountain "Stairway to Heaven" , State University of New York Press, SUNY, the earliest reference to this name is Li Daoyuan (d. 527) "Although Mount Emei is 1,000 li south of Chengdu, on clear, autumn days if you gaze at the mountain from afar, its two peaks seem to face one another like moth eyebrows." Hargett: In other words, the mountain's twin peaks resemble the arched, antennae of a silkworm moth (e 蛾) and so the name was adopted as the name for the mountain.