From Lumbini to Wutai Mountain: Reevaluation of the Trans-Himalayan Buddhist Communication Route within the Belt and Road Initiative Period

By Xinmei Zhou, Qian Zhu & Xinyu Liu

Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha Sakyamuni, embodies the profound devotion of Buddhist adherents around. Wutai Mountain is situated in Xinzhou City, Shanxi Province, China. Since the 11th year of Yongping during the Eastern Han Dynasty, it has progressively evolved into the foremost of China’s four renowned Buddhist mountains, serving as a sacred site where Han Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism converge. Since China introduced the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, the trans-Himalayan region has witnessed an unprecedented opportunity for cultural interchange over the past decade. The reconceptualization of the Buddhist trade route between Lumbini and Wutai Mountain has emerged as a crucial strategy for promoting cultural prosperity in the region.
Buddhism emerged in ancient India about the 6th century BCE. In the 3rd century BC, during Ashoka’s reign, Buddhism disseminated from Lumbini, its focal point. King Ashoka erected a stone pillar at Lumbini to mark the Buddha’s birth and ardently promoted the dissemination of Buddhism. Buddhism has progressively disseminated across the Indian subcontinent and extended to adjacent nations via trade routes. As stated in the Biography of the Western Regions in the Later Han Dynasty, Emperor Hanming of the Eastern Han experienced a nocturnal vision of a Jin figure and dispatched an ambassador westward to pursue the Dharma. In 67 AD, he received Indian monks Kaya Morten and Zhu Falan, and the subsequent establishment of the White Horse Temple in Luoyang the following year signified the formal entrance of Buddhism into China. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, extensive construction of Buddhist temples commenced at Wutai Mountain, and by the Tang Dynasty, it had emerged as a revered Buddhist sanctuary esteemed by the royal family. Documents, including the Biography of Monks and Records of the Western Regions of Datang, indicate that over 200 Chinese and foreign monks traversed the Qinghai-Tibet Ancient Road and the Sichuan-Yunnan Tea-Horse Ancient Road between the 1st and 19th centuries. Over 30 individuals specifically noted the association of Lumbini with Wutai Mountain, including Faxian, Xuanzang, and Wuxing Zen Master. 
After several years, China’s Belt and Road Initiative has reintroduced prospects for cross-Himalayan Buddhist relations. Initially, at the policy level, China and Nepal executed People’s Republic of China-Nepal Joint Statement (MOU) in 2017, which identified cultural and educational exchanges as a focal point of collaboration. In October 2023, Nepal’s Lumbini Development Trust (LDT) entered into a memorandum of agreement with the Purnima Foundation, which specified that the core region of Lumbini has a radius of 3 km, and that commercial operations are restricted within 50 meters of the Moyev Temple. In addition, since 2015, the Wutai Mountain Buddhist Association of China and the International Institute of East Asian Culture have held the Wutai Mountain International Buddhist Symposium in turn, and published academic monographs such as the Proceedings of the Wutai Mountain International Symposium on Belief..The Wutaishan Buddhist Museum and the Lumbini International Buddhist Research Center (LIRC) together established a digital platform for cultural artifacts. By the conclusion of 2024, over 300 Buddhist statues and scrolls were scanned in high quality, resulting in the creation of a three-dimensional database comprising more than 2,000 statues. 
Nevertheless, cross-Himalayan Buddhist communication encounters numerous challenges. The steep terrain and complicated climate of the Himalayan mountains significantly impede transportation and communication, rendering the natural topographical conditions the principal obstacle to the dissemination of Buddhism. In July, 2023, the Dachuan Vision Nepal Exchange Camp investigated at the Zhangmu Port on the Sino-Nepal border and found that from May to September every year, the Sino-Nepal highway entered the rainy season, and landslides and mudslides caused by heavy rains and floods frequently occurred. These disasters have led to frequent road interruptions, which have seriously affected the trips of Buddhist pilgrims and monks, and the Buddhist cultural exchange activities cannot be carried out smoothly.The equilibrium between tourism expansion and the preservation of cultural assets has emerged as a significant concern. Official statistics from the Wutai Mountain Scenic Area, updated in May 2025, indicate that the number of tourists in 2023 was approximately 6.07 million, while in 2024, it rose to almost 6.9 million, reflecting a year-on-year rise of 14.29%. The increase of tourists will lead to the fading of some temple walls due to carbon dioxide erosion.
Based on the opportunities and challenges brought by the Belt and Road Initiative, China and Nepal must first solve the traffic problems. The overall traffic capacity of the China-Nepal Highway will be improved by the projects such as the Anika Highway in Nepal in 2017 and the Nie-Zhang section upgrade in China in 2020, and the driving speed will be increased from 20 km/h to 40 km/h. According to the statistics of Nepal Tourism Bureau, in 2022, there were about 1.2 million pilgrims and tourists going back and forth via China-Nepal Highway. In the future, China and Nepal will continue to deepen cooperation and improve the overall traffic conditions and disaster resistance of China-Nepal highways. Secondly, cultural protection between China and Nepal is the foundation of cultural exchange. China and Nepal can set up the Belt and Road special fund for Buddhist exchange, which can be used for the protection of Ashoka Pillar in Lumbini and the restoration of murals in Wutai Mountain. Wutai Mountain Buddhist Association can also start the Wutai Mountain Buddhist Building Digitization Project to build three-dimensional models of 37 key temples and provide scientific and technological support for the protection of Buddhist cultural heritage. Finally, the joint study of Buddhism between China and Nepal is also essential. Lumbini currently has Lumbini Buddhist University (LBU) in Nepal focusing on the study of Buddhist history and philosophy. Based on this, China, Nepal and India can set up a Birthplace Research Center of Sakyamuni in Lumbini to jointly study the origin of Buddhism..
The Buddhist exchange from Lumbini to Wutai Mountain includes millennia of historical memory and cultural heritage throughout the Himalayas. In December 2024, China and Nepal issued the Joint Statement, and signed the Sino-Nepalese Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement, the Sino-Nepalese Development Cooperation Plan (2025-2029), the Memorandum of Understanding and the exchange of notes on relevant projects, which indicated that the cross-regional civilization dialogue had entered a new stage.Within the context of the Belt and Road Initiative, this cultural route will serve not only as a pathway but also as a paradigm of the initiative.

Xinmei Zhou, Scholar, Baize Institute for Strategy Studies, Southwest University of Political Science and Law, P. R. China. Qian Zhu, Scholar, Administrative Law School, Southwest University of Political Science and Law, P. R. China. Xinyu Liu, Scholar, Criminal Investigation School, Southwest University of Political Science and Law, P. R. China.