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Despite numerous research findings related to medieval Chinese Buddhism, the witchcraft role of bird totems in Buddhist history has not received sufficient attention. In order to fill this gap, this paper analyzes how Buddhist monks in medieval China developed a close relationship with bird-totem worship. This relationship has been documented in Buddhist scriptures, rituals, oral traditions, biographies, and mural art. Although bird-totem worship was practiced in many regions of medieval China, this paper specifically examines the visual culture of bird totems in Tibetan and Chinese Buddhism. Furthermore, some details of this culture were recorded in Buddhist texts and images. According to these works, various bird-totem patterns and symbols are believed to be effective ritual arts used by Tibetan and Chinese Buddhist monks to influence nature and the supernatural through ritual and magic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several sites in East Asia have been identified as Potalaka, originally thought to be located near the southern seas of India. The basis of this phenomenon is built upon the nature of Avalokiteśvara as a mediator between sentient beings and buddhas, the nature of Potalaka as a boundary between their worlds, and Buddhist philosophy. The belief in the abode of Avalokiteśvara bodhisattva on Earth incorporates various places into a Buddhist world transcending borders. This paper examines Korean beliefs about Potalaka and Avalokiteśvara through legends about Naksan Temple, with special emphasis on their relationship with mountain and sea worship. At the same time, the study attempts to connect the beliefs with the philosophical background of Hwaŏm tradition, which is in close relation with this ritual site. The aim of this approach is to point out the unique and universal, as well as the local and translocal elements in Korean narratives about Potalaka. In other words, the paper searches for patterns that are to be found in the wider Buddhist world and characteristics that are created by the specific religious environment of Korean culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]