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Synopsis
Mount Putuo, also known as the "Island of Guanyin," is a small island in the East China Sea known as the single most important pilgrimage site for the worship of the Bodhisattva Guanyin. The Bodhisattva of compassion is one of Asia's most popular deities and is worshipped from Sri Lanka to Japan. Established in the tenth century, Mount Putuo continues to attract thousands of visitors every year, and is counted among the "Four Great and Famous Buddhist Mountains" of
China.
Over the centuries, poems, biographies, maps, and legends about Mount Putuo, as well as descriptions of its landscape and temples, have been collected in a series of local histories called "gazetteers." Following the structure of a gazetteer, with each chapter dedicated to a particular genre, this book discusses the function of each in the depiction of Mount Putuo and illustrates them with a number of examples, none of which have been translated before. Written for all who are interested in the
history of Asian Buddhism and the sacred sites of China, this book demonstrates the textual construction of this Buddhist sacred site across a variety of genres. New & Used
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What Reviewers Are Saying
This engaging book works, and succeeds, at two levels. At one level, it is a cultural history of the island of Putuo (Mount Potalaka), a Buddhist pilgrimage site southeast of Shanghai. At another, it is a study of how gazetteers of this site textualized that history. * Timothy Brook, Journal of Religious History * In a sense, the Bingenheimer has produced his own mini-gazetteer in English of selected "exhibits" (to use Bingenheimer's term), augmented with analytical guidance for the reader. * Nathan Woolley, University of Glasgow, Religious Studies Review * Island of Guanyin is a fascinating book. ... The volume is a welcome addition to the current scarcity of English-language literature on the islands of China, and it adds to the body of work concerning islands as holy sites. Its methodologically robust examination of textual history provides a surprising range of insights. * Adam Grydehoj, Island Studies Journal * Bingenheimer is to be commended for the close readings he provides of his sources, and for the detailed discussion of exactly how gazetteers were produced. * Olivia Milburn, T'oung Pao * This book makes major contributions in two areas: studies of Buddhist sacred sites and the value of temple gazetteers in carrying out such studies. Putuo, the sacred island of Guanyin, is the subject of several temple gazetteers and Bingenheimer is the leading expert in the use of them as historiographical sources. He successfully shows how the site and the texts have been mutually constituted through the centuries. An exemplary guide to new approaches to the study
of Chinese Buddhism. * Chun-fang Yu, Professor Emerita, Columbia University * Bingenheimer reconstructs a world of maps and miracles, pilgrimage and piracy, landscape and literati, examining the views of a wide cast of characters who worked with and against each other in the compilation of gazetteers from Mount Putuo over the course of five centuries. Consistently engaging and rich in detail, Island of Guanyin both contributes to our understanding of an important pilgrimage site in China, and provides an extended meditation on the relationship
between community, place and devotion. * John Kieschnick, The Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Professor of Buddhist Studies, Stanford University * Marcus Bingenheimer's Island of Guanyin: Mount Putuo and its Gazetteers is a major study of two important subjects in the history of Chinese Buddhism: the Buddhist sacred site of Mount Putuo and the historiographical genre of the temple gazetteer. The book is extremely well-written, theoretically engaged yet free of academic jargon, erudite but always engaging, and addressed both to the specialist in Chinese Buddhism and the educated general-reader without prior
knowledge of Mount Putuo or the literary genre of the Chinese gazetteer. It is a profoundly original and important work of scholarship that offers significant contributions to multiple fields of intellectual inquiry. It will be essential reading for anyone interested in Buddhist studies, Chinese
religion, Chinese history, Chinese literature, book history, or cultural geography. * Max Moerman, Professor in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures, Barnard College *
of Chinese Buddhism. * Chun-fang Yu, Professor Emerita, Columbia University * Bingenheimer
between community, place and devotion. * John Kieschnick, The Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Professor of Buddhist Studies, Stanford University * Marcus Bingenheimer
knowledge of Mount Putuo or the literary genre of the Chinese gazetteer. It is a profoundly original and important work of scholarship that offers significant contribution
religion, Chinese history, Chinese literature, book history, or cultural geography. * Max Moerman, Professor in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures, Barnard College *