Abstract:

In the history of modern tourism development in Putuo Mountain, the statue of the South China Sea Guanyin Open-air Buddha (South China Sea Guanyin Bronze Statue) is a major event that has far-reaching influence in the Buddhist and tourism circles, and is a typical example of the production of physical pilgrimage landscapes. The event of the South China Sea Guanyin statue itself and the abundant narration around this landscape are important weights for pilgrimage tourism in Putuo Mountain.In the Buddhist cultural system, there is a long history of statue tradition. Buddhism is a kind of "image teaching", which not only has idols, but also means that people will spare no effort to make statues of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. The colorful art of Buddha statues constitutes an important part of the Buddhist belief system. The statue of Guanyin has promoted the spread of Guanyin belief. As Liu Changjiu said, "There are two ways to spread Guanyin belief. If Guanyin Bodhisattva only stays in the "concept", it obviously cannot meet the people's belief needs. It must be "landed" as a concrete icon in order for people to truly perceive the existence of this god, that is, the abstract "signified" in the belief symbol system should be condensed into the concrete "signifier". Only temples that create artistic images for the gods and provide shelter for the holy images can make the gods "in concept" move towards "reality" and become idols worshipped by people; Only through people' statue movement can we truly realize the mission of gods blessing the masses. Statues of gods are the landscape production process of belief symbols and become people' pilgrimage objects; The temple where the icon is located provides people with pilgrimage space, which is the supporting place for communication between human and God and the carrier for pilgrimage tourism.  

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