Putuo Mountain
Location: Zhejiang
Transportation: Ferry service
Culture/History Rating: 5/5
Scenery Rating: 3.5/5
Hotels: N/A
Summary:
Description:
| Mount Putuo's fascinating beauty can be summed up in these words: of the "fascination of the sea, the mystery of the mountains and the auspiciousness of the Buddha". The Five Wonders of Mount Putuo are the golden beach, exotic rocks, sound of the pounding waves, and the mirage. Mount Putuo is often compared to the West Lake of Hangzhou : "No place is better than the West Lake in terms of the combined beauty of mountains and lakes; by the same token, no place is better than Mount Putuo in terms of the combined beauty of mountains and the sea." Mount Putuo is said to be the Remotest Part of Heaven, the Farthest Corner of the Sea, the Shangri-La, the Penglai Wonderland and the Buddhist Kingdom on the Sea. |  |
 | Mount Putuo became a Buddhist Sanctuary during the Tang Dynasty. An Indian Monk arrived there to cultivate his morals during the 847-860 Dazhong reign of Emperor Xuanxong of the Tang Dynasty. It was said that he personally attended lectures given by the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara who bestowed a seven-hued precious stone on him. Thus Mount Putuo became the holy place where Avalokitesvara made his female presence felt. In 916, the second year of the Zhenming reign of the Late Liang Dynasty, the eminent Japanese monk Huie was stranded at Mount Putuo while shipping a statue of the Goddess of Mercy from Mount Wutai to Japan. He entreated the Goddess for help and his call was answered. In gratitude he had a temple built at Mount Putuo to enshrine the statue of the Goddess he was carrying. This is the so-called Bukenqu (Reluctant to Go) Guanyin Temple in Mount Putuo. Since then, Mount Putuo has become the spiritual bodhimandala of Guanyin. |
| Mount Putuo's cultural heritage includes an edict bestowed by Emperor Wanli of the Ming Dynasty on the Zhenhai Monastery (the Fayu Temple), Kasayas from emperors Kangxi and Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, a horizontal board inscribed with the wording "ever-bright Sea and Moon" written by Emperor Kangxi, a jade zeal bestowed by Emperor Guangxu, and a painting of peonies by Empress Dowager Cixi. After more than a thousand years of development, Mount Putuo has emerged as a Buddhist Kingdom on the Sea, where, as the saying goes, "Every nook and corner of the mountain contains a temple, and a monk appears whenever someone has lost his way." |  |
 | Mount Putuo is covered all over with evergreen trees. Among them are about 1170 huge camphor trees. One of them is found in Puhui nunnery, whose trunk is six meters in circumference, and the tree is over 800 years old. There are also gingkoes, cypresses and pines. To the west of the Huiji Temple on the Foding Mountain is a E'er manger, a rare tree under second-class state protection. Ancient camphor trees in exotic shapes are also found at the Fayu and Puju temples, the Guanyin Cave and the Wall of Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, and by Miaozhuangyan Road. Mount Putuo, cocooned in verdant trees, looks really like a place of great wilderness and is truly a Buddhist Kingdom on the sea. |