Why is Jiuhua Mountain called "Lotus Buddha country"?

Jiuhua Mountain is located in the southwest of Qingyang County, Anhui Province. It is adjacent to the Yangtze River in the north, Huangshan in the south, Guichi water in the West and Taiping Lake in the East. Within the surrounding area of more than 100 kilometers, the mountains are picturesque, the grotesque rocks are steep, the silver waterfall, the flying spring and the ancient pine and bamboo sea. The magnificent scenery made Liu Yuxi, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, exclaim that "when you see a strange peak, you will be shocked... It is a unique thing of nature"; Wang Anshi, one of the eight masters of prose in the Tang and Song Dynasties, praised it as "thousands of mountains in Chu Yue, which are magnificent and unique"; Even the Yuan Dynasty emperor Tu tie mu'er visited the scene and commented that "the painter still owes himself Kung Fu when looking at the Wuxi bridge today".

Jiuhua Mountain is not only a famous scenic spot in southern Anhui with beautiful scenery, but also a famous Buddhist mountain that occupies an important position in the history of Buddhism in China. Since it was established as the Bodhisattva ashram of the Tibetan king in the middle of the 8th century, after more than 1000 years in the song, yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, the scale of the temple has become larger and larger, "the prosperity of incense is in the world". With the titles bestowed by emperors of all dynasties and the praises of scholars in poetry and prose, Jiuhua Mountain has become more and more famous, thus gaining the name of "Lotus Buddha country".

The center of Jiuxian temple in Huashan district is called Jiuxian temple. More than 20 temples are distributed in the basin of 2.5 square kilometers.

Jiuhuajie basin is an armchair shaped mountain basin opening to the north. The formation process is roughly as follows: a zhonglongshan Jiuhuajie fault runs from south to north, creating conditions for water erosion. Under the influence of long-term erosion, concave depressions are formed and become catchments in the upper reaches of the river. During the Quaternary ice age, this depression became an ideal snow area again, which became the cradle of glaciers and gave birth to ice bucket glaciers. Under the action of glaciers, it was eroded into a basin surrounded by mountains on three sides. After the melting of glaciers, it was scoured and transformed by flowing water, and finally shaped into today's geomorphic form.

Jiuhua street has dense buildings and its own system, with a unique "Buddhist" landscape. All temples are arranged around Huacheng temple, the Kaishan temple in Jiuhua Mountain. Civilian houses and Zen homes alternate with each other, and mountain village streets coexist with religious buildings, forming a special environment with both solemn and strong Buddhist atmosphere and lively and fresh pastoral atmosphere.