Dwelling Caves

Dwelling caves are long-established in Buddhist ideology. Certain arhats (Sãkyamuni's early disciples who have pledged to protect and maintain the Teachings until the appearance of the next Buddha in the world) traditionally have dwelt in mountain caves, and Buddhist holy books hold many examples of cave residents. A number of cave habitats where hermits have lived alone in meditation are present at Mount Wu-t'ai. Since the seventh century the special cave best known to pilgrims and wayfarers and believed to be the abode of powerful spirits is the Diamond Grotto (Chin-kang k'u). An important pilgrimage site until recent decades, it has fallen into disuse since the late 1950s and early 1960s when all the structures in the valley were leveled to create a vacation retreat for Lin Piao. Today there is only a pile of debris in front of the Diamond Grotto site.
Since ancient times the cavern has been identified as the habitat of the mountain spirit that governs over the precipice (shan-shen). All eminently metaphysical mountains in the divine landscape of China contain such spirits which antedate Buddhist and, even in some cases, Taoist influence. However, this prior history doesn’t prevent the Buddhists from an attempt at legitimization made through an appeal to precedents in an even more antediluvian antiquity. In this case, the history of the Diamond Grotto is traced back to the early buddhas of the Auspicious Aeon, thus establishing that the cave -- and in fact, the entire mountain complex -- has long been a sacred center for Buddhist activity. The precedence of the shan-shen or other native Chinese tradition loses ground in the face of this assertion.