Putuo

English

Putuo District in Shanghai

Alternative forms

• (obsolete) P'u-t'uo

Etymology

The atonal pinyin romanization of the Mandarin 普陀 (Pǔtuó), a clipped transcription of Sanskrit पोतलक (Potalaka, literally “Brilliance”), the name of the palace of the god or bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (known in China as the goddess or bodhisattva Guanyin) in the influential Flower Garland Sutra. The island in Zhejiang has been a center of Buddhist pilgrimage related to the worship of Guanyin since at least the Tang dynasty.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /putwoʊ/

Proper noun

Putuo

1. An island in Zhoushan, Zhejiang, China.
2. A district of Zhoushan, Zhejiang, China.
   • 2021 July 25, Dominique Patton, Sophie Yu, “East China braces for typhoon In-fa after flooding in country's centre”, in Christian Schmollinger, editor, Reuters‎^[1], archived from the original on 25 July 2021, China‎^[2]:

     The typhoon landed in the Putuo district of the city of Zhoushan, a major port in the east coast province of Zhejiang, at 12:30 p.m. (0430 GMT) on Sunday, state broadcaster CCTV said, citing the China Meteorological Administration.

3. A district of Shanghai, China.
   • 1987 January 5, Edward A. Gargan, “SHANGHAI JOURNAL; ERASING THE SLUMS? THE 64-SQUARE-FOOT QUESTION”, in The New York Times‎^[3], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on July 06, 2009, World‎^[4]:

     Satisfied, she poked at scraps of wood glowing in the small stove holding the wok, which stood on a pile of rubble outside her door in the slums of this city's Putuo District. […]
     Altogether, about 15,000 people live along with Mrs. Zhi in the Putuo slums, a raged swath of land on the northwestern edges of the city crowded with ramshackle miniature houses that were thrown up helter-skelter in the 1930's and 40's.

   • 2022 April 29, Huizhong Wu, Chen Si, “EXPLAINER: How China is using metal barriers to fight COVID”, in AP News‎^[5], archived from the original on 30 April 2022‎^[6]:

     At one apartment complex in Shanghai’s Putuo district, residents fiercely protested after the residential committee put a U-lock on the door to their building on April 16.

Related terms

• Potala

Translations

Island in Zhejiang Province, China

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 普陀 (zh) (Pǔtuó)

District of Zhoushan, China

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 普陀 (zh) (Pǔtuó)

District of Shanghai, China

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 普陀 (zh) (Pǔtuó)

Further reading

• Putuo, P'u-t'o at Google Ngram Viewer
• Saul B. Cohen, editor (1998), “Putuo Shan”, in The Columbia Gazetteer of the World‎^[7], volume 3, New York: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 2538, column 2