Jiuhua Cirque and Evolution of Settlements

Jiuhua Cirque and Evolution of Settlements

Jiuhuashan was mountain glacier of Quaternary over two million years ago. The glacier here created many special landforms,such as toruliform pond valley and glacier debris.

When glacier disappeared, most glacier remains were left. The most typical glaciar remain in Jiuhuashan is a cirque with semicircular bucket shape.The cirque covers an area of about 4km² with a north entrance. The south side of the cirque is Furong Ridge, the east is Chaxiao Peak and the middle is a flat terrain, with a winding toruliform stream.

In about A.D. 401 (Eastern Jin period), people began to cultivate and do farming. Bei Du, a Buddhist from Tianzhu(ancient India) built up a simple temple at the foot of Furong Ridge, which is the beginning of Jiuhuashan Buddhist activity.

In around A.D. 741 (Tang Dynasty), Kim Gyo-gak, a prince of ancient Silla country (Korea), came to Jiuzishan for his Buddhist activity and built up Huacheng Temple. After he passed away, his body didn't rot. Then descendants built up a flesh body temple to worship him as Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva. Since then, Huacheng Temple has become the worldwide ashram of Ksitigarbha Buddhisattva. Afterwards, LiBai, a famous poet in Tang Dynasty, renamed Jiuzishan as Jiuhuashan, which brings the new influence to Jiuhuashan and makes it more popular.

In Ming and Qing Dynasty, Jiuhuashan Buddhism was supported by emperors and came into heyday. More and more temples are built up and extended from cirque to the top of the mountain.

At present, within Jiuhua cirque, there are hundreds of shops and dozens of temples along the toruliform pond valley where is Jiuhua Town now with the center of Huacheng Temple. It is a wonderful cultural landscape demonstrating aco-existence of monks and laymen and an integration of agriculture-business-zen.