Wei-Cheng Lin. Building a Sacred Mountain: The Buddhist Architecture of China's Mount Wutai.

Mount Wutai emerged as East Asia's most significant sacred mountain around the mid-sixth century, distinguished by its lack of prior sacred pedigree. Unlike other holy sites, it did not develop through mytho-historical layers but instead arose suddenly as the abode of the Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī. Wei-Cheng Lin's study reveals that this sacralization was achieved and sustained primarily through Buddhist discourses, particularly via monastic architecture. By focusing on pagodas, monasteries, and cityscapes of the Northern Wei dynasty (386–534), Lin demonstrates how these structures mediated the visualization and experience of the Dharmic divine, playing a pivotal role in the process of Buddhicization. This approach challenges the traditional Sinification paradigm, emphasizing instead the autonomous development of Buddhist sacrality on Mount Wutai.

Elverskog, J. (2015). Wei-Cheng Lin. Building a Sacred Mountain: The Buddhist Architecture of China’s Mount Wutai. The American Historical Review, 120(2), 591–592. https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/120.2.591