古迹的小岛,在我国可以说是绝无仅有。普陀山位于浙江省杭州湾以东约100海里,是舟山群岛中的一个小岛。全岛面积12.5平方公里,呈狭长形,南北最长处为8.6里,东西最宽外3.5公里。最高处佛顶山,海拔约300米。
普陀山的海天景色,不论在哪一个景区、景点,都使人感到海阔天空。虽有海风怒号,浊浪排空,却并不使人有惊涛骇浪之感,只觉得这些异景厅观使人振奋。
Putuo Mountain, one of the Four Holy Buddhist1 Mountains, covers an area of 12.5 square kilometers. The highest peak, the Fudingshan Mountain is 300 meters high above the sea level. Temples, monasteries2, nunneries are spread all over the mountain. According to the annals of Putuo Mountain, after the construction of "Unwilling-to-go" Guanyin Temple, people began to build up temples in large scales. The remained ten ancient architecture complex and historical sights were built in Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing. Putuo Mountain once had 82 temples, 128 huts, accommodating 4,000 monk3 and nuns4 at its heyday5. When you walk on the paths, you probably can come across monks6 in kasaya. The glorious sceneries as well as the glamour7 concerned with Buddhism8 make it a sacred mountain.
Puji Temple, Fayu Temple, and Huiji Temple are the three largest in the twenty temples in Putuo. Puji Temple, covering 11,000 square meters, was first built in Song Dynasty, and is the main temple devoted9 to the Goddess of Guanxin. Fayu Temple was first built in Ming. It sits along the mountain with different layers on it. Numerous large trees stand in the mountain, qualify the temple for a quiet and deep place. Huiji Temple is on the Foding Peak, so gets a name after that, Foding Peak Temple.
Bizarre rocks and queer cliffs can be seen everywhere. The most famous twenty are Qingtuo Rock, Rock of Two Tortoises Listening to Preaching, Rock of Buddhist Heaven on Sea, etc. Along the line where the mountain connects with the sea, many spectacular caves are very attractive. Chaoyin Cave and Fanyin Cave are the two top ones.
Notes:
1. Putuo Mountain 普陀山