Tiantai Mountain

In the mythology of Traditional Chinese religion, the creator goddess Nüwa cut the legs off a giant sea turtle (Chinese: 鳌; pinyin: áo) and used them to prop up the sky after Gong Gong damaged Mount Buzhou, which had previously supported the heavens.^[4] 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.^{[citation needed]}

Guoqing Temple on the mountain is the headquarters of Tiantai Buddhism,^[5] and also a tourist destination. Tiantai, named for the mountain, is an East Asian Buddhist school of Mahāyāna Buddhism that developed in 6th-century China and focuses on the Lotus Sutra.^[5] The most prominent teacher of that school, Zhiyi, was based at Guoqing Temple.^[5] 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 school, Tendai. A Korean offshoot, the Cheontae school, was also established during the 12th century.

The mountain has a famous temple to the Song-era Chinese Buddhist monk Ji Gong at the Cave of Auspicious Mists that was associated with early modern fuji or "spirit writing" movements.^[6]

Tiantai Mountain was designated a scenic area in 1985, with an area of 105 km².^[1]

A panorama of Tiantai Mountain.

• Tiantaishan railway station