A very significant hallmark of the East Asian Buddhist tradition, especially the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, is that its development tends to be combined with certain specific Buddhist scriptures. For instance, this characteristic is found in the Tiantai school with the Saddharma Pundarika Sutra and in the Huayan school with the Buddhavatamsaka Sutra. This form of religious belief tends to have a particular Buddhist ideology as its core, elite scholar monks as its leaders, and a particular form of religious worship. Thus, in East Asian Buddhist beliefs, too, there is a subsystem of Buddhism that gradually formed from the cult of Manjusri, the Mahavaipulya Buddhavatamsaka Sutra, and the Wutai Mountains in present-day Shanxi Province. It eventually took a stable form and became a self-contained Buddhist belief system. After a prolonged evolutionary process, however, these three have become profoundly influential over a broad area and a long period of time in East Asia after the medieval period. In order to systematically study the interconnection between these three and to be able to study in greater depth the integral dynamic between this unique Buddhist system and the social life of East Asia since the Medieval period, we organized a multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary conference entitled ‘A Study of Manjusri Beliefs, Mount Wutai, and the Mahavaipulya Buddhavatamsaka Sutra’ from August 8–11, 2017. During the three-day conference, dozens of scholars and experts from many countries conducted in-depth research on this field and held dynamic discussions. The collection of papers resulting from this conference, published here, is divided into five chapters and contains seventeen articles, and discusses many important issues from the above-mentioned topics.

1. Manjusri. 2. Tripitaka. Sutrapitaka. Avatamsakasutra- Commentaries. 3. Buddhist temples - China - Wutai Mountains - Doctrines. 4. Wutai Mountains (China) - Religion - Congresses.