| Tiantai Mountain | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 A view of Tiantai Mountain and thepagoda ofGuoqing Temple, constructed during theSui dynasty (6th century CE). | |||||||||||||
| Highest point | |||||||||||||
| Elevation | 1,138 m (3,734 ft) | ||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 29°10′44″N121°02′32″E / 29.178843°N 121.042213°E /29.178843; 121.042213 | ||||||||||||
| Geography | |||||||||||||
  Tiantai Mountain | |||||||||||||
| Parent range | Zhejiang–Fujian Hills | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Tiantai Shan | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 天台山 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Hanyu Pinyin | PRC Standard Mandarin: Tiāntāi Shān ROC Standard Mandarin: Tiāntái Shān | ||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
Tiantai Mountain (alsoTí Taî in the local language) is amountain inTiantai County,Taizhou,Zhejiang Province,China.[2] Its highest peak, Huading, reaches a height of 1,138 meters (3,734 ft).[2] The mountain was made anational park on 1 August 1988.[citation needed] One of nine remaining wild populations of Seven-Son Flower (Heptacodium miconioides) is located on mount Tiantai.[3]
In themythology ofTraditional Chinese religion, the creator goddessNüwa cut the legs off a giant sea turtle (Chinese:鳌;pinyin:áo) and used them to prop up the sky afterGong Gong damagedMount Buzhou, which had previously supported the heavens.[4] A local myth holds that Tiantai was on the turtle's back before and Nüwa relocated it to its current position when she had to remove the turtle's legs.[citation needed]
Guoqing Temple on the mountain is the headquarters ofTiantai Buddhism,[5] and also atourist destination. Tiantai, named for the mountain, is anEast Asian Buddhist school ofMahāyāna Buddhism that developed in6th-century China and focuses on theLotus Sutra.[5] The most prominent teacher of that school,Zhiyi, was based at Guoqing Temple.[5] Over many years it has been an important destination for pilgrims, especially fromJapan. The mountain was visited bySaichō in 805 CE, who went on to found the relatedJapanese Buddhist school,Tendai. AKorean offshoot, theCheontae school, was also established during the 12th century.
The mountain has a famous temple to theSong-era Chinese Buddhist monkJi Gong at the Cave of Auspicious Mists that was associated with early modernfuji or "spirit writing" movements.[6]
Tiantai Mountain was designated a scenic area in 1985, with an area of 105 km2.[1]
| International | |
|---|---|
| Other | |
