the pure land, be it Amitabha’s land, as in the Taima
Mandara(based on the Guan Wuliangshou jing, Con-
templation of the Buddha of Limitless Life Sutra), or
one of the representations of mythic geographies, as
in the Kumano Mandara. The practice of using im-
ages of Amitabha for making believers at the moment
of their death mindful of their hope of being reborn
in his pure land also resulted in a variety of repre-
sentations. The most famous among these are depic-
tions of Amitabha’s descent with his retinue of
bodhisattvas “coming to meet” (raigo) and welcome
believers who are on their deathbeds.
The idea of a pure land plays a symbolic and iconic
role that goes well beyond the technical theological
sense of the concept. The concept has a more general
manifestation: a paradisiacal or utopic place in which
bliss and enlightenment are possible through the
beneficent agency of a supremely enlightened and vir-
tuous being, namely a buddha. In this broader sense,
earthly locations and religious monuments may be
seen as equivalents or embodiments of pure lands. For
instance, the temple of Byodoin in Uji, Japan, repre-
sents a pavilion in Amitabha’s Pure Land. The POTALA
in Lhasa represents the pure abode of Spyanras gzigs
(Chenresik; Avalokites ́vara); the Potala is itself repro-
duced in the summer palace of the Manchu emperors
in Jehol. A combination of several of these themes is
seen in the temple complex of Joruriji, near Nara,
Japan, a Shingon temple named after Bhaisajyaguru’s
Pure Land. In this complex, two buildings arranged
around a pond represent the pure lands of Amida
(Amitabha—to the west) and Yakushi (Bhaisajyaguru—
to the east); believers position themselves on the east-
ern bank of the pond, which represents our impure
world, and look across to the Amida temple (iconically
representing the pure land as depicted in the Guan Wu-
liangshou jing.Additionally, specific topographic con-
figurations may be understood as pure lands. This is
the case in Japan where, for instance, the Jodosan peak
in Tateyama and the three mountains of the Kumano
shrine are regarded as literal and ritual pure lands.
The great variety of conceptions and representa-
tions of the concept need not be interpreted as an
overflowing of the narrow boundaries of the more
technical conception of a purified buddha-field. In
earthly or iconic representations the idea of a pure
land retains its mythic and metaphoric sense of a place
made pure and beautiful by the saving presence of ex-
traordinary holiness, especially the marvelous effects
of the sacred presence—in person, icon, or memory—
of a buddha or a bodhisattva. One may nevertheless
summarize the above themes within five categories of
pure land: (1) extraterrestrial pure lands of the future,
objects of faith and goals of hope for rebirth—today
the most common conception of the pure land; (2)
cosmographic pure lands, that is, adorned extrater-
restrial fields of the many buddhas and bodhisattvas
of the universe; (3) topographic pure lands, which
form part of concrete locations within mythic geo-
graphies; (4) millenarian, utopic, or ideal pure lands
requiring a radical transformation of the present
world in which we live; and (5) metaphoric or psy-
chological pure lands, which are summarized by the
phrase “a pure mind is the pure land.”See also:Dhyana (Trance State); Heavens; Hells; Pure
Land Art; Pure Land Buddhism; Pure Land SchoolsBibliography
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LUISO. GO ́MEZPURE LAND SCHOOLSThe MAHAYANAsutras developed considerable lore
based on the idea of different buddhas and bo-
dhisattvas dwelling in buddha-fields (buddhaksetra). It
is common for practitioners to meditate on, make of-
ferings to, chant sutras about, and recite the name or
MANTRAof a particular BUDDHAor BODHISATTVA. ThesePURELANDSCHOOLS