'This is a most informative and beautifully illustrated book about Mt Wutai, one of the four sacred Buddhist mountains dedicated to Majusri (Wenshu), the Bodhisattva of Wisdom. It provides background information about the philosophical and religious heritage of China, the history of Buddhism, and major schools of Chinese Buddhism. Perhaps the most attractive feature of the book is its detailed ... Read moredescription of the pilgrimage routes to the mountain and its five terraces together with more than sixty existing monasteries that the author visited personally. The reader is introduced to the history and legends of the monasteries and the resident monks and nuns. It is the next best thing to making the pilgrimage to the holy site oneself. I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in Buddhism, sacred geography, and pilgrimage.' - Chun-fang Yu, Sheng Yen Professor of Chinese Buddhist Studies, Columbia University; 'To enter the world of 'China's Holy Mountain' is to follow in the footsteps of modern-day pilgrim and erudite explorer Christoph Baumer, who made his journey into one of China's most spiritual mountains: Mt Wutai in Shanxi Province. Richly illustrated and extremely readable, his book first sketches a background to China's religions then gives an eyewitness account of the author's visits to all the monasteries (primarily Buddhist) that still exist on the mountain. The record of his journey to Mt Wutai by Japanese Buddhist pilgrim Ennin (793-864) has left an indelible testimony of the sites and history of the mountain on the eve of the devastating mid-ninth century Buddhist persecution. Baumer's modern photo-journey similarly offers an up-to-date account of the religious institutions and practices of Mt Wutai in the early twenty-first century, including the prominence of Tibetan Buddhism since the late imperial period, in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution, and during the throes of China's modernization. This remarkable book will be a valuable historical and ethnographical record for decades and perhaps centuries to come.' - Dorothy C. Wong, Associate Professor of East Asian Art, University of Virginia Show Less