Some of the monks associated with Jiuhua's tradition of holiness are still physically present on the mountain, preserved rather than buried.
Self-mummification and preservation
Jiuhua is known for the practice, documented at several of its temples, of preserving the bodies of eminent monks after death, in some cases following ascetic practices before dying intended to aid natural preservation, and in others through post-mortem treatment. These preserved remains, sometimes lacquered and gilded, are displayed seated in shrine halls and venerated by pilgrims as flesh-body bodhisattvas, treated as a continuing physical presence of the monk's spiritual attainment rather than as relics of a departed teacher in the ordinary sense.
A Korean prince becomes a mountain deity
The mountain's association with Ksitigarbha, the bodhisattva who vows to empty the hells before accepting enlightenment himself, traces largely to the story of a Korean prince, Kim Qiaojue, who is said to have practised austerities at Jiuhua for decades before his death in the eighth century and was subsequently venerated as an earthly manifestation of Ksitigarbha, his own preserved body reportedly becoming one of the mountain's early examples of the practice.
A mountain oriented toward death and merit
Because Ksitigarbha is specifically associated with aiding the dead and beings in hell realms, Jiuhua's temples and rituals lean heavily toward funerary merit-making, distinguishing its devotional character from the wisdom or compassion orientation of China's other three major Buddhist mountains.