Historic landscape images and contemporary spatial practices at religious heritage sites: evidence from Mount Wutai, China

Historic landscape images are central to the formation of cultural and sacred landscapes. However, it remains unclear how such images continue to shape contemporary spatial practices. Focusing on Mount Wutai, a major religious cultural landscape in China, this study aimed to examine the relationship between historically constructed landscape images and present-day landscape engagement. By spatially interpreting historical textual representations and comparing them with contemporary patterns of movement and dwell times as forms of spatial practice, we explored how religious, sensory, and natural landscape meanings are selectively sustained or disrupted. The findings revealed a pronounced image-practice dislocation. Sites with strong historic symbolic significance attracted limited contemporary engagement where ritual continuity and perceptibility had been interrupted, while areas with active religious practices maintained both symbolic and experiential prominence. This study argues that the persistence of sacred landscape meaning depends not only on material heritage, but also on the continued enactment of landscape practices. The results contribute to landscape research by offering a relational understanding of image, practice, and sacredness, with implications for the management of religious and cultural landscapes.