Mount Putuo 普陀山
Creators: name: Bruntz, Courtney
Publisher: name: Database of Religious History (DRH)
Year: 2023

description: Made up of elite and non-elite pilgrims, imperial patrons, and monks, devotees of Guanyin legitimated Mount Putuo as a sacred site as well as the home of the Bodhisattva. Not part of a codified sect of religious practitioners, this group helped domesticate Guanyin at Mount Putuo while also establishing it as the mytical potalaka from the Huayan (Flower Garland) Sutra. Potalaka (補陀落山) refers to the home of the Bodhisattva who perceives the world's sounds (Guānshìyīn 观世音 -- the Chinese translation of Avalokiteśvara). Compared to other Buddhist pilgrimage sites, Mount Putuo's emergence as a national and international place of pilgrimage was late. It began in the tenth century, and in the 16th century gained more traction. It was after the 18th century that it reached its peak in popularity. Other famous Buddhist mountains, such as Mounts Wutai and Emei were popularized during the Tang Dynasty. For Putuo, trade at the location was important for its establishment, as were miracle tales. Stories that located Guanyin at the site, and connected the mountain with the notion of potalaka, helped build the site as a Buddhist pilgrimage destination. Miracle tales have been essential for Mount Putuo's development, as they provided the mystique that draws in visitors. As Marcus Bingenheimer (2016) notes in his examination of Mount Putuo gazetteers, in the Ming and Qing eras, tales of supernatural events occurring at Mount Putuo were part of the religious 'imaginaire' regarding the site. These included accounts of individuals receiving a vision of the Bodhisattva, plus efficacious wonders (miracles) performed by Guanyin. The work by Chün-fang Yü (2001) regarding Guanyin and Mount Putuo further confirms the importance of miracle tales in sacralizing Mount Putuo as the home of Guanyin. Throughout its history, the location has been shaped by government impositions on religion, military activities, elite (literati) and non-elite pilgrims, and national and international trade. In the modern era, Mount Putuo has been greatly influenced by economic investments in religious sites. Each of China's four Buddhist mountains has a government-operated tourism corporation, and the Mount Putuo Tourism Development Company is one example of the kind of corporatization that shapes Chinese Buddhism today. Tourism development companies function as private operators, but they are officially state-owned. Thus, although the Chinese government is an atheist state, it is a patron of Buddhism. After the death of Mao, reforms regarding religious and economic policies occurred, and in 1982, religious policy began protecting five legal religions -- Buddhism, Daoism, Protestantism, Catholicism, and Islam. Throughout Chinese Buddhism's history, financial donations from laity, as well as donations of land, have supported monastic communities and temples, but since the 1990s, local governments have also become donors of Buddhism through their support and initiation of building or rebuilding of Buddhist sites. Local governments are interested in these efforts for the economic benefits that can come from tourism. Interestingly, even in its contemporary setting, Mount Putuo's miracle tales are significant for its identity. In current tourism advertisements, miracle tales are used to draw in visitors, and tourist organizations promote the site for its efficacious mystique. Thus even within state-sponsored tourism, the location is a center for encountering Buddhist culture and the Bodhisattva Guanyin.