East China Sea Putuo Temple

East China Sea Putuo Temple

East China Sea Putuo Temple is a cultural tourism attraction.

“It is known that the temple is by the sea. In the Yuanshouqing year of Renzi (1312), Monk Zheng Man and others built a separate site here, which housed a statue of Guanyin. During the Yuanshaoxing era (1151), fisherman Wu found it in the sea.” — Excerpt from Volume 75 (Famous Sites) of the Jiading-era (Qing Dynasty) Songjiang Prefecture Records.

East China Sea Putuo Temple is located on the western side of the Bay Tourism Area. The East China Sea Putuo Temple, built in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties, has a beautiful and moving legend. It is said that in the second year of the Zhenming era of the Later Liang Dynasty during the Five Dynasties period (916 AD), Japanese monk Jianzhe traveled to China and visited Mount Wutai. He deeply wished to bring back one of the sandalwood-carved statues of Guanyin to Japan for worship. Moved by his devotion, the abbot gifted the statue to him. Jianzhe attempted to set sail for Japan three times, but was thwarted each time by storms, fog, and iron lotus flowers, forcing him to enshrine the statue at the foot of Shuangfeng Mountain on Mount Putuo. Having resided on Mount Putuo for a long time and seeing many temples and nunneries crowded on one mountain, the Guanyin statue wished to go to a mortal realm to bring salvation to the people. Thus, it chose the coastal area near the East China Sea — the ancient town of Zhelin on the northern shore of Hangzhou Bay. There, it exerted its divine powers, causing wind and clouds to rise, and drifted straight to the seashore on the northern coast of Hangzhou Bay. Fishermen who were fishing and gathering seafood saw Guanyin slowly arriving from the direction of Mount Putuo, the “Buddhist Kingdom of Sea and Sky.” After bowing in reverence, they worked together to bring the statue ashore and enshrined it in the home of a fisherman surnamed Wu. When the news spread, fishermen from a hundred-mile radius came to burn incense and pray, hoping that this Guanyin from Mount Putuo would bless them with favorable weather and safe voyages. The Guanyin statue proved especially miraculous, gradually transforming the northern shore of Hangzhou Bay into a land of fish and rice, a fertile and prosperous region.