Located in Sershul (or Shiqu) County, northwest Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Sichuan Province, the Bage Mani Stone Wall consists of rows of piled-up Mani stones, engraved or painted with Tibetan Buddhism sayings. [Photo/Baidu]

China is known for the Great Wall in Beijing, yet there is also a "Great Wall" of belief made of Mani stones among Tibetan people, the Bage Mani Stone Wall.

Located in Sershul (or Shiqu) County, northwest Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Sichuan Province, the Bage Mani Stone Wall consists of rows of piled-up Mani stones, engraved or painted with Tibetan Buddhism sayings.

Since Sangye Phuntsok the first Bage Rinpoche laid the first Mani stone on the Tashikhar grassland in 1671, countless pilgrims around the country have visited and added holy stones to the site. The result is a wall that stretches 1.75 kilometers in length and stands about 3.5 meters high, embedded with more than 3,000 stone statues and over 6,000 Buddhist scriptures including Kangyur and Tangyur.

Tashi Wengmo and her family had been there for nine days and they lived in a tent pitched nearby on the grassland. Their daily routine is to prostrate and circumambulate along the Mani Wall, where they can always get companies of Tibetan believers from local villages and faraway places. [Photo/Chinanews.com]

In an afternoon of June, Tashi Wengmo a senior Tibetan woman from Tibet Autonomous Region was conducting the prostration ritual clockwise along the Mani Wall, with a prayer wheel in one hand and a rosary in another. She believes by doing so she can ask for Buddha's blessings for her whole family, which is also revered by each and all of the pilgrims.

Tashi Wengmo and her family had been there for nine days and they lived in a tent pitched nearby on the grassland. Their daily routine is to prostrate and circumambulate along the Mani Wall, where they can always get companies of Tibetan believers from local villages and faraway places.

Erjintso, a local 13-year-old Tibetan girl, often takes her younger sister to take ritual walk along the Mani Wall. Sometimes she could tear down a button from her clothes and stick it to a stone plate on the Mani stone wall with yak butter, which is a traditional custom to record a pilgrim's worship and is a way believed to call Buddha's blessings.

Even though Erjintso and her sister do not have a clear picture of what a belief is, worshipping the Mani Wall is more of a tradition and family habit for them, the same as for many other Tibetans. "It's good for me and my families," said the 13-year-old with resolution.

According to Dorje, the steward of the Management Committee, the Bage Mani Stone Wall is almost comparable with the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa in Tibetans' hearts. "Given the way to Lhasa is too far away and weary, worshipping this site is believed to have the same religious meaning," said Dorje, adding that hundreds of pilgrims would come to pay homage from 4 o'clock in the morning to 8 in the evening.

According to Dorje, the steward of the Management Committee, the Bage Mani Stone Wall is almost comparable with the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa in Tibetans' hearts. [Photo/Baidu]