Tiantai Mountain (also Tí Taî in the local language) is a

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

Tiantai County Tiantai County ( Tai-chow dialect: T'in-t'e yön; ) is located in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, People's Republic of China. Residents mainly speak the Tiantai dialect. The county is noted for its scenic Mount Tiantai, which is also an importa ...

, Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, China. Its highest peak, Huading, reaches a height of . The mountain was made a

national park A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individua ...

on 1 August 1988. One of nine remaining wild populations of Seven-Son Flower (''

Heptacodium miconioides ''Heptacodium miconioides'', the seven-son flower, is a species of flowering plant. It is the sole species in the monotypic genus ''Heptacodium'', of the honeysuckle family Caprifoliaceae. The common name "seven-son flower" is a direct tran ...

'') is located on mount Tiantai.

Legends

In the

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of Narrative, narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or Origin myth, origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not Objectivity (philosophy), ...

of Traditional Chinese religion, the creator goddess

Nüwa Nüwa, also read Nügua, is the mother goddess of Chinese mythology. She is credited with creating humanity and repairing the Pillar of Heaven. As creator of mankind, she molded humans individually by hand with yellow clay. In the Huainanz ...

cut the legs off a giant sea turtle () and used them to prop up the sky after Gong Gong damaged Mount Buzhou, which had previously supported the heavens. 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.

Guoqing Temple

Guoqing Temple on the mountain is the headquarters of Tiantai Buddhism, and also a

tourist destination A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or an exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Types Places of natural b ...

. Tiantai, named for the mountain, is an

East Asian Buddhist East Asian Buddhism or East Asian Mahayana is a collective term for the schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism that developed across East Asia which follow the Chinese Buddhist canon. These include the various forms of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vi ...

school of Mahāyāna Buddhism that developed in 6th-century China and focuses on the ''

Lotus Sutra The ''Lotus Sūtra'' ( zh, 妙法蓮華經; sa, सद्धर्मपुण्डरीकसूत्रम्, translit=Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtram, lit=Sūtra on the White Lotus of the True Dharma, italic=) is one of the most influ ...

''. The most prominent teacher of that school, Zhiyi, was based at Guoqing Temple. Over many years it has been an important destination for pilgrims, especially from Japan. The mountain was visited by Saichō in 805 CE, who went on to found the related

Japanese Buddhist Buddhism has been practiced in Japan since about the 6th century CE. Japanese Buddhism () created many new Buddhist schools, and some schools are original to Japan and some are derived from Chinese Buddhist schools. Japanese Buddhism has had a ...

school,

Tendai , also known as the Tendai Lotus School (天台法華宗 ''Tendai hokke shū,'' sometimes just "''hokke shū''") is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition (with significant esoteric elements) officially established in Japan in 806 by the Japanese ...

. A Korean offshoot, the Cheontae school, was also established during the 12th century.

Ji Gong Temple

The mountain has a famous temple to the Song-era monk Ji Gong at the Cave of Auspicious Mists that was associated with early modern fuji or "spirit writing" movements.

Transport

Tiantaishan railway station Tiantaishan railway station () is a railway station in Tiantai County, Taizhou, Zhejiang, China. It is an intermediate stop on the Hangzhou–Taizhou high-speed railway The Hangzhou–Taizhou high-speed railway is a high-speed railway in Chi ...

References

Buddhist sites in China Mountains of Zhejiang National parks of China Qing dynasty architecture Sacred Mountains of China Sui dynasty Tourist attractions in Zhejiang {{Zhejiang-geo-stub