The Yading Nature Reserve has been declared a National Nature Reserve in China since 2001 and a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 2003. It is not only a wildlife sanctuary, but also a pilgrim site for believers of different schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The glaciated landform of Yading is covered with a range of classic glacial features, such as U-shaped valleys, cirques peaks, horn peaks, and moraines. It is an area surrounding three awe-inspiring glacier-covered peaks which are believed to be the manifestations of Avalokitesvara, Manjusri, and Vajrapani, the three most important Bodhisattvas in Tibetan Buddhism. This article is a preliminary reflection and examination of the sacredness of Yading, its different aspects, and contemporary challenges

LIU Zhengli

Tsukuba Repository

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JOURNAL OF WORLD HERITAGE STUDIES・SPECIAL ISSUE 2018・SACRED LANDSCAPES ISSN 2189-4728 
Zhengli Liu
Yading National Nature Reserve Administration Bureau, No.23 Echu Road, 627750, Shangri-La Town, Daocheng County, 
Sichuan Province; +86 187 824 20094, 19657172@qq.com.
■ Abstract
The Yading Nature Reserve has been declared a National Nature Reserve in China since 2001 and a UNESCO 
Biosphere Reserve since 2003. It is not only a wildlife sanctuary, but also a pilgrim site for believers of different 
schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The glaciated landform of Yading is covered with a range of classic glacial 
features, such as U-shaped valleys, cirques peaks, horn peaks, and moraines. It is an area surrounding three 
awe-inspiring glacier-covered peaks which are believed to be the manifestations of Avalokitesvara, Manjusri, 
and Vajrapani, the three most important Bodhisattvas in Tibetan Buddhism. This article is a preliminary 
reflection and examination of the sacredness of Yading, its different aspects, and contemporary challenges.
KEY WORDS: Yading Nature Reserve, Sacred Landscape, Sacred Mountains
■ 1. Introduction
1.1 Overview of The Yading Nature Reserve
In the gnas yig, the guidebook to the sacred 
land of Yading, the great Yogi Padmasambhava 
prophesied that “anyone who encounters the 
blessing of the sacred land (of Yading) will escape 
the three lower rebirths of Samsara, receive all four 
tantric empowerments, and attain all ordinary and 
extraordinary accomplishments (to Buddhahood)” 
(Lha Rams Pa, Unknown). Yading, or gnas chen gangs 
dkar rigs gsum mgon po in Tibetan, is a pure land 
(Tibetan: zhing khams, Sanskrit: Kṣetra), which is an 
abode of a Buddha or Bodhisattva. Additionally, a 
gnas mchog, which could be translated as sacred 
place, means a physical embodiment of Buddha, 
Dharma, and Sangha, or a place with  
great historical significance in Tibetan culture (Zhang, 
1993). To the laymen’s eyes, it is a place with an 
awe-inspiring landscape, as well as great natural and 
cultural attractions.
Yading is located in Daocheng County of the 
Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan 
Province, China. It shares a border with the Diqing 
Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan Province 
in the northwest and the Liangshan Yi Autonomous 
Prefecture of Sichuan in the east. The total area 
of the Nature Reserve is 1,457 square kilometers 
(Qin, 2014). It has been declared a National Nature 
Reserve since 2001 and a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve 
since 2003. [Fig. 1]
1.2 Landscape and Biodiversity
Yading is an area of mountains and valleys 
surrounding three awe-inspiring glacier-covered 
peaks: the north peak Avalokitesvara (6,032m), the 
south peak Manjusri (5,958m), and the east peak, 
Vajrapani (5,958m). Cut by three U-shaped glacier 
valleys, the straight-line distances between the three 
peaks is less than 7km. Geographically, it is located 
in the Hengduan Mountains and has the distinctive 
features of high mountains and deep valleys. The 
altitude ranges from 2,800m to 6,032m, with 32 
peaks above 4,500m, 10 peaks above 5,000m, and 
1 above 6,000m (Qin, 2014). The glaciated landform 
The Sacred Landscape of the 
Yading Nature Reserve
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Figure 1: Location of Yading National Nature Reserve, a map from Overall Planning of Yading National Nature Reserve 
(2013~2025).
Figure 2: One of the three Peaks, Avalokitesvara, taken by Wang Lei from Yading National Nature Reserve Administration.
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JOURNAL OF WORLD HERITAGE STUDIES・SPECIAL ISSUE 2018・SACRED LANDSCAPES ISSN 2189-4728 
of Yading is covered with a range of classic glacial 
features, such as U-shaped valleys, cirques peaks, 
horn peaks, and moraines. [Fig. 2]
Yading is rich in wildlife species. In flora, 120 
families, 431 genera, and 1,200 species of vascular 
plants have been discovered; among them there 
are 20 families, 34 genera, and 103 species of ferns 
and 100 families, 397 genera, and 1,023 species 
of seed plants. In fauna, there are 23 orders, 73 
classes, and 291 species of vertebrates; 12 of them 
are listed as Protection Class I in China, such as snow 
leopards (Panthera uncia) and black necked cranes 
(Grus nigricollis), and an additional 42 are listed as 
Protection Class II. (Qin, 2014)
1.3 Cultural Diversity 
In Tibetan traditions, Yading and most parts of the 
Ganzi Prefecture belong to the Kham region, “the 
land of people,” one of the three major regions 
of Tibetan cultural areas, which also includes 
the Ü-Tsang “the land of belief” and the Amdo 
“the land of horses” regions. The Kham region is 
famous for its residents with great talents, such as 
the Tibetan Buddhism School founders, brilliant 
scholars, and great merchants. Although most of 
Ganzi’s population are identified as being of Tibetan 
nationality, there are actually many ethnic groups 
with significant differences in languages, traditions, 
and beliefs. The area also belongs to “the Ethnic 
Corridor of Southwest China” as called by some 
Chinese linguists and anthropologists. Thanks to 
the valleys and grasslands forming pass ways, trade, 
ethnic migration, and cultural exchanges never stop 
in this ethnic corridor.
 
1.4 Local Communities and Stateless Societies
Samuel Geoffrey has argued that Traditional Tibet can 
best be regarded as a collection of stateless societies. 
(Geoffrey, 1982) This argument is very accurate when 
looking at the traditional Kham region, which was 
mostly ruled by different secular leaders politically 
recognized by the central government of Beijing, 
had religious ties with Lhasa, and experienced little 
centralized control, historically. Kham, as the land of 
people, has always been about cultural diversity and 
diverse communities.
The population within the nature reserve 
is about 1,200 and 9,000 in the surrounding areas, 
97% of whom are Tibetan. The area surrounding 
the three snow mountains is called gangs dkar gling, 
Figure 3: The srin mo Demoness Map, from https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/qvWKr77n7Q8y3RcgAI60 
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which literally means the land of snow mountains. 
Although it is a relatively small place, there are four 
tribes of people around the Nature Reserve: mtsho 
thog, gzir ba, ’bong dze, and stong nyen (Lha Rams 
Pa, Unknown). Each of them has distinct dialects and 
customs. Most of them believe in the Gelug school of 
Tibetan Buddhism while some believe in the Kagyu 
School. The most important monastic community is 
the Gangs Gling Monastery, its branch temple, mTsho 
’Go Temple, is located within the nature reserve.
 
■ 2. The Sacredness of Yading
We can get a glimpse of the Tibetan sense of 
landscape on the map of srin mo, or the supine 
demoness, which we can find in most Tibetan 
monasteries. Srin is one kind of pre-Buddhist 
animistic being which is associated with earth and 
later with an autochthonic aspect of Tibetan culture1. 
[Fig. 3] The story of the demoness map starts in the 
7th century, the time of the legendary king Songtsen 
Gampo and supernatural events which happened 
frequently to stop Buddhism from propagating. 
The king’s wives from China and Nepal saw that the 
whole landscape of Tibet was in the shape of a srin 
mo demoness, so they built 13 Buddhist Temples at 
focal points to nail down the demoness in a supine 
position. After the construction of the temples, 
Buddhism was able to spread across the land without 
hindrance. The whole natural landscape in this myth 
was seen as an autochthonic aspect of Tibetan 
culture1. This story can help us see some interesting 
and dynamic aspects of the sacred landscape of 
Yading.
2.1 The Great Snow Mountains of the Three 
Bodhisattvas
I. The Consecration and Opening of Yading as 
a Pure Land (zhing khams)
The first aspect of Yading is the Buddhist one. Yading 
is like a pantheon of over 40 sacred mountains with 
high and low status. Nearly every one of them is 
believed to be a Buddhist deity. In the two available 
traditional guidebooks (gnas yig) of Yading, (Karma, 
2005) and (Lha Rams Pa, Unknown), it is claimed 
that both the consecration (byin rlabs) and the door 
opening (sgo phye) for spiritual practices are the 
action of the 8th century Yogi Padmasambhava, who 
is believed to have tamed a lot of Tibetan deities to 
serve the purpose of Buddhism. The consecration 
and door opening are similar to the action of the 
two princesses building the 13 temples; in this 
mythological way, the autochthonic culture and the 
natural wonder of Yading were brought into the 
Tibetan cultural world. [Fig. 4]
II. Tibetan Buddhists’ List of Sacred Places
There are inventories, similar to the World Heritage 
List, that are put together by monks and scholars, 
in which different sacred places (gnas chen or 
gnas mchog), such as Bodh Gaya of India or Wutai 
Mountain of North China, are ranked as the best 
mountains to do a pilgrimage (gnas skor) in a certain 
year. In one pilgrim guidebook, Yading is listed as the 
11th sacred place of Buddhism and it recommended 
the year of the Rooster as the most auspicious time 
to do a pilgrimage, while the Bodh Gaya is listed 
as the second sacred place and auspicious in the 
year of the Dog (Karma, 2005). In this way, Yading 
was evaluated and put within the spiritual order of 
Tibetan Buddhism.
III. The Three Bodhisattvas
 
 1In one myth, the Tibetan people are said to be the offspring of a male monkey who is the incarnation of Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara and a srin mo 　　
 demoness. 
Figure 4: Padmasambhava, collection of Rubin Museum of 
Art.
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In Tibetan, the full name of Yading is gnas chen gangs 
dkar rigs gsum mgon po, which means the Great 
Snow Mountains of the Three Bodhisattva. Three 
awe-inspiring glacier-covered peaks are believed to 
be the manifestation of Avalokitesvara, Manjusri, and 
Vajrapani - the three most important Bodhisattvas 
in Tibetan Buddhism who represent Lord Buddha’s 
compassion, wisdom, and empowerment.
The combination of the three Bodhisattvas 
(Tibetan: rigs gsum mgon po, Sanskrit: trikulanatha) 
is a very important recurrent theme and idea in 
Tibetan culture, history, and religion. Some scholars 
find that this combination came from the Kriya Tantra 
in the esoteric tradition of Buddhism2 . The cultural 
and spiritual significance of the three peaks and their 
surrounding areas brings reverence to the hearts of 
local people and pilgrims from other parts of Tibet. 
Because of this, all animals in the Yading Nature 
Reserve are guarded by Bodhisattvas, therefore 
hunting and killing them has serious spiritual 
consequences.
These examples show how sacredness 
has been expressed in the written words of 
monks and in the mythology of Tibetan Buddhism, 
when it was introduced as a religion and established 
as a culture. This is the monastic, or literary, aspect of 
the sacredness of Yading.
2.2 Sacred Mountains of Communities
The above textual narrative of the monasteries 
and Buddhist scholars shows the relationship with 
Tibetan Buddhism, or broader Tibetan culture, 
in the sacred landscape of Yading. However, the 
contribution of the sacredness to the conservation 
of the Yading Nature Reserve can also be found in 
the spiritual relationship between local communities, 
pilgrims, and sacred mountains. This relationship 
cannot only be interpreted in the canon and ideas 
of Buddhism. The worship of sacred mountains and 
pilgrimages predated the propagation of Buddhism 
on the Tibetan Plateau. A lot of sacred mountains 
in Tibet are regarded as abodes of guardian spirits 
for certain communities. Although these spirits or 
deities are said to be have been tamed by great 
yogis and put in lower levels of the Tibetan Buddhist 
Pantheon, they are of the utmost importance 
to the prosperity and spiritual security of local 
communities. Within the Yading Nature Reserve, 
every village has its own sacred mountains, which 
are usually smaller mountains. On the first day of 
the Tibetan New Year, families and communities 
conduct offering rituals to these mountains. An 
example of how the communities care for their 
sacred mountains occurred in May of 2016, when 
a small forest fire broke out in a mountain near the 
nature reserve; villagers of the dga dbyang village 
rushed to put out the fire as if their own houses were 
on fire. According to a colleague from this village, the 
villagers believe that their village and family have a 
spiritual bond with this specific mountain. This is an 
underlying, unscripted, and indigenous aspect of the 
sacredness of Yading which needs further study.
■ 3. Continuity and Challenges
“China has long survived its ancient cotemporary, 
the Land of Egypt; yet, even after all the centuries, 
it cannot be seen itself as a whole. True, its vast 
lands are known collectively as China; but with 
the barriers of confused tongues and difficult 
transportation, some of its areas differ from others, 
even as Formosa differs from Alaska,” wrote Austrian-
American explorer, linguist, and botanist Joseph 
Rock in his 1931 article “Konka Risumgongba, Holy 
Land of Outlaws” about his visit to Yading in June 
and August of 1928. Other than language barriers 
and inaccessibility as the reasons for China’s cultural 
diversity, he also spoke about the chiefs in the Kham 
region at that time and thought that before long they 
would become things of the past. Now, in the time 
of globalization and modernization, they are really 
things of the past. However, different from language 
barriers, inaccessibility, and local chiefs or traditional 
political powers, the belief in the sacred mountains 
continues to live on with remarkable resilience, 
acquiring new meanings, and contributing to the 
conservation of Yading’s natural and cultural diversity.
3.1 Sacred Mountains of Shangri-La
Since the 1990s，many places within the Sichuan, 
Yunnan, and the Tibetan Autonomous Region in 
 2“Three Lords of the World”. Himalayan Art Resources Inc. July 2013. Web. 2 Aug. 2004., www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=1146
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China have been claiming to be Shangri-La, and 
Yading is no exception. Shangri-La was first described 
in James Hilton's 1933 novel Lost Horizon. Because 
of the similar landscapes described in the novel 
and the brand awareness of Shangri-La, Yading and 
other sites are competing to be the “real Shangri-
La”. In 2004, a neighboring county of Yading, named 
Zhongdian in the Yunnan Province, officially changed 
its name to Shangri-La County (now Shangri-La City). 
Reacting to this, the slogan “Daocheng Yading, the 
Soul of Shangri-La” was born. Now with modern and 
international connotations, the concept of Shangri-
La participated in the new myth-making or re-
enchantment of Yading for preservation and tourism.
3.2 Current Management Arrangements
The Nature Reserve is now managed by the Yading 
Nature Reserve Administration Bureau, a resident 
agency of the Government of Ganzi Prefecture, 
and protected by the “Regulations of the People's 
Republic of China on Nature Reserves: Decree of 
the State Council of the People's Republic of China 
(No. 167)”. Stakeholder groups in Yading include: the 
villages of Shangri-La town, three other townships, 
and the monastic community of Gongga Ling 
Monastery. 62% of the staff of the bureau and over 
95% of the rangers are from local communities.
As “the soul of Shangri-La” and because 
of her natural beauty and cultural distinction, the 
Yading Nature Reserve has become a popular tourist 
attraction in China. Tourism development generates 
the most revenue for nature conservation and 
the payment for the ecosystem services of local 
communities. Local communities’ livelihoods have 
benefited greatly from this new tourism.
3.3 Risks and Challenges 
In 2013, the world’s highest in altitude civilian airport, 
Daocheng Yading Airport, was opened a 2-hour 
drive from the Nature Reserve. Cars can access from 
the Provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, and the Tibetan 
Autonomous Region. Highways and railways are 
being built in nearby counties. In 2017, over 750,000 
people, including pilgrims, visited the Yading Nature 
Reserve, 55% more than in 2016. With all these 
changes, there are two main challenges for the 
conservation of the sacred landscape.
Firstly, with the improvement of the 
infrastructure inside and outside the nature reserve 
and the influx of tourists, language barriers and 
transportation inaccessibility have really become a 
thing of the past. However, because of these changes, 
the cultural diversity and sacredness of the area are 
at risk. For example, local communities are getting 
more involved in the outside world and are subject to 
outside evaluation and the yearly pilgrim systems of 
different sacred places are now competing to be the 
one and only Shangri-La.
Secondly, the misinterpretation of local 
cultures, its value, and sacredness in tourism 
promotion results in ignorant tourists. Because 
most tourists are only taking short visits to the area, 
they do not know much about the sacred nature of 
Yading. This is evident in their insensitivity to customs 
such as playing in the water and even occasionally 
taking nude photos near sacred lakes. Moreover, 
not many people know nor appreciate the history, 
cultural diversity, and spiritual value of nature in 
Yading. 
■ 4. Summary
The primal natural beauty of Yading inspires the 
spiritual world of pilgrims and local residents, as a 
result, its sacredness and traditions have conserved 
this place for hundreds of years. The sacredness of 
Yading is not one dimensional and static, there are 
at least two aspects of broader Tibetan culture and 
local culture. In addition to this, historical changes 
are shown in the Buddhist mythology of the Srin mo 
Demoness and Padmasambhava. From pre-Buddhism 
mountain worship to the modern notions of Shangri-
La, the continuity and resilience of the sacredness of 
Yading should not be underestimated.
However, Yading still faces the greatest 
challenge: how to conserve the spiritual relationship 
between man and nature under the pressures 
of economic development. This article is only a 
preliminary reflection and examination of this 
challenge. A lot of hard works is waiting to be done. 
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■ Literature cited
Geoffrey, Samuel. 1982. Tibet as a Stateless Society and Some Parallels. The Journal of Asian Studies 41: pp. 
215–229.
Gianotti, Carla. 2004. The Srin Mo Demoness and Her Submission to the Buddhist Tibetan Dharma. In Orofino, G. 
and Vita, S. (eds.): Buddhist Asia 2, pp. 69–97. Nakanishi Co., Ltd., Kyoto, Japan.
Himalayan Art Resources. 2017. Three Lords of the World. 
http://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=1146 [accessed 30 September 2017]
Karma, rGyal mTshan. (eds.). 2005. The Guidebooks of 25 Sacred Places in mDo Khams Region. Minzu Press., 
Beijing.
Lha Ram Pa, mDo sNgags. (eds.). Unknown. The Short History of Gangs dKar Gling and the Guidebook of gNas 
Chen Gangs dKar Rigs gSum mGon Po. Printed by Gangs dKar Gling Monastery, Ganzi.
Qin, Weihua et al. (eds.) 2014. Overall Planning of Yading National Nature Reserve (2013~2025). Nanjing 
Institute of Environmental Science, Nanjing.
Rock, J.F. 1931. Konga Risumgongba, Holy Land of Outlaws. The National Geographic Magazine, July 1931: pp. 
1-65.
Zhang, Yisun. (eds.). 1993. Tibetan and Chinese Dictionary. 2nd edition. Minzu Press., Beijing.


The Sacred Landscape of the Yading Nature Reserve

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