Mount Putuo

Mount Putuo
"Mount Putuo" in Chinese characters
Chinese	普陀山
Literal meaning	(from Sanskrit) "Mount Potalaka"
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Pǔtúo shān Wade–Giles P'u3-t'o2 shan1 IPA [pʰùtʰwǒ ʂán] Wu Romanization Phù-dou sẽ Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Póu-tòh sāan Jyutping Pou2-to4 saan1 Southern Min Tâi-lô Phóo-tôo san

Mount Putuo (Chinese: 普陀山; pinyin: Pǔtúo Shān; literally: "(from Sanskrit) Mount Potalaka") is an island southeast of Shanghai, in Zhoushan prefecture of Zhejiang province, China. It is a renowned site in Chinese Buddhism, and is considered the bodhimanda of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara (Guanyin). Mount Putuo is one of the four sacred mountains in Chinese Buddhism, the others being Mount Wutai, Mount Jiuhua, and Mount Emei (Bodhimandas for Manjusri, Ksitigarbha, and Samantabhadra respectively). Mount Putuo lies in the Eastern Sea of China and incorporates the beauty of both mountain and sea. Its area is approximately 12.5 square kilometers and there are numerous famous temples. Every year on February 19, June 19, and September 19 it welcomes millions of people for the celebration of the birth of Guanyin.

Mount Putuo has been a pilgrimage site for over a thousand years. After the Tang dynasty, Putuo Mountain became a center of Guanyin worship. Traditionally there were three main temples: The Puji si 普濟寺 (founded 10th cent.), the Fayu si 法雨寺 (founded 1580 CE), and the Huiji si 慧濟寺 (founded 1793 CE). The site has received numerous renowned visitors over the ages, including the then 20-year-old future Chan-master Yinyuan Longqi (Japanese: Ingen), who came to the site in 1612, while looking for his father, who had disappeared fifteen years earlier. The modern scholar-monk Taixu spent several years in solitary retreat at a small hermitage on Putuo.