China is a Buddhist country since Buddhism entered China in Han Dynasty. China preserves a great number of treasures concerned with Buddhism as well as four Buddhist Mountains, namely Emei Mountain, Wutai Mountain, Jiuhua Mountain and Putuo Mountain.
It was said that Buddhism was introduced into Emei in the first century A.D. Since the late Han Dynasty, Buddhist began to build Temples here. During the Ming Dynasty, Buddhism became populous and the number of monks reached 1,700, with nearly 100 temples built in the mountain. At the end of Qing Dynasty, there were 150 temples. Today, nearly 30 temples exist in the mountain, with 300 monks here. 2,000 years’ development of Buddhism brings abundant cultural heritage and makes Emei Mountain become the holy place for Buddhism in the world.
Wutaishan is one of earliest mountains for building Buddhist Temples in China. Since Yongping period (58~75AD) of Eastern Han Dynasty, a great number of splendid temples were built, making Wutai Mountain become meta-place for temples. When visiting here, you can find valuable Sculpture, rock carvings, murals, and calligraphy over the temples. In the prosperous period of Tang Dynasty, there were more than 300 temples and 3,000 monks in Wutai Mountain. As time goes by, most temples were destroyed. Nowadays, 95 temples are well-deserved; of which 6 are the important national heritage conservation units.
At the beginning of Tang Dynasty, Jiuhua Mountain became the place for Ksitigarbha to moralize people. Up to Ming Dynasty, it got great development. In great times of Qing Dynasty, there were over 300 temples, and 4,000 monks. Today, it has 90 temples, 600 monks and more than 2,000 classical Buddhist books and musical instruments used in a Buddhist mass.
As the one of 1,390 Zhoushan islands, Putuo is a place for Kwan-yin, the great Buddhist in Chinese people’ minds, to moralize people. So it is respected as the holy place in South China Sea. Due to its myth, it’s a must place for tourism. The temples were built in 858 A.D. In great times, there were 3 big temples, 88 small temples and 128 thatch huts with more than 4,000 monks, named ”the first Buddhist mountain in Zhendan”. On the birthday of Kwan-yin, many Buddhist will come here to celebrate the day.