Building a Sacred Mountain: The Buddhist Architecture of

Building a Sacred Mountain: The Buddhist Architecture of China's Mount Wutai (Art History Publication Initiative Books)

By the tenth century CE, Mount Wutai had become a major pilgrimage site within the emerging culture of a distinctively Chinese Buddhism. Famous as the abode of the bodhisattva MaÃ±juÅ›rÄ« (known for his habit of riding around the mountain on a lion), the site in northeastern Chinaâ€™s Shanxi Province was transformed from a wild area, long believed by Daoists to be sacred, into an elaborate complex of Buddhist monasteries.

In Building a Sacred Mountain, Wei-Cheng Lin traces the confluence of factors that produced this transformation and argues that monastic architecture, more than texts, icons, relics, or pilgrimages, was the key to Mount Wutaiâ€™s emergence as a sacred site. Departing from traditional architectural scholarship, Linâ€™s interdisciplinary approach goes beyond the analysis of forms and structures to show how the built environment can work in tandem with practices and discourses to provide a space for encountering the divine.
Country USA
Brand University of Washington Press
Manufacturer University of Washington Press
Binding Hardcover
UnitCount 1
Format Illustrated
EANs 9780295993522
ReleaseDate 0000-00-00

Country	USA
Brand	University of Washington Press
Manufacturer	University of Washington Press
Binding	Hardcover
UnitCount	1
Format	Illustrated
EANs	9780295993522
ReleaseDate	0000-00-00

Building a Sacred Mountain: The Buddhist Architecture of China's Mount Wutai (Art History Publication Initiative Books)