On the East China Sea there floats a mountain called Putuoshan, which is a 12.5 square kilometer narrow island in the Zhoushan Region of China's Zhejiang Province. With verdant trees, strange rocks, golden beaches and craggy reefs, the island fits perfectly with the serene, solemn and holy atmosphere that Buddhism pursues.

Hence, it became a special place to enshrine Avalokitesvara, or Guanyin in Chinese, since the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and one of the four Famous Buddhist Mountains in China, the rest being Mutai Mountain in Shanxi Province, Emei Mountain in Sichuan Province and Jiuhua Mountain in Anhui Province. There used to be such a comment: nor sceneries excellent in mountains and lakes, the West Lake in Hangzhou is the best; yet for sceneries excellent in mountains and sea, Putuoshan takes the first place. Consequently, the fame of Putuoshan as a buddhist Fairyland on the Sea, spread throughout the country and even beyond.

When it is winter in Southern China but Putuoshan is glitter, plentiful and intelligent because the mountain is a Buddhist mountain, the trees are Buddhist trees and the flowers are Buddhist flowers. Even the waves, due to the vastness of the sea, roll like Buddhist clouds. December 20, 2002 was just an ordinary day but when dawn broke, more than ten thousand visitors who had already ferried to the island the previous evening started to flock from all over the mountain to Puji Temple, the main monastery where Guanyin is enshrined.

A Buddhist said that an abbot had been entrusted to manage all the temples at Putuoshan since 1950, and the ceremony for the abbot to take office was called assumption of the Seat A grand ritual was going to be held for the new abbot Master Jieren to formally assume the seat, and hence elders of various Buddhist monasteries both home and abroad, representatives of governments at different levels and people of various circles all made their way to the island to witness the ritual and extend their greetings.

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