China: Baodingshan

Late in the 12th century and continuing until the disruptive arrival in China of the Mongols in 1249, a Buddhist layman named Zhou Zhifeng (b. 1159) took over an esoteric cult that had been established in Sichuan two centuries earlier by another layman, Liu Benzun (d. 907).  Seeking to widen the cult's audience, both high and low, Zhou conceived and oversaw the construction near present-day Chongqing of what in modern cinematic terms would be billed as "a visual extravaganza."  This was Baodingshan, "Treasure Top Mountain," unique in China as both a Buddhist study center and place of pilgrimage.