Pure Land is the purified field that surrounds all buddhas, a buddha-land. It is a space without defilements, naturally created by virtue of the buddhas great compassion and immeasurable wisdom.

Of the various forms of Buddhism that developed after demise of Shakyamuni Buddha in 484 B.C., Mahayana became the dominant tradition in East and parts of Southwest Asia. This broad area encompasses China, Korea, Vietnam and Japan, among other countries.
In time, a number of schools arose within Mahayana Buddhism in accordance with the capacities and circumstances of the people, the main ones being Zen, Pure Land and Esoteric Schools. Among these schools, Pure Land has the greatest number of adherents, although its teachings and methodology are not widely known in the West!

Pure Land Buddhism is centered around the Buddha Amitabha ("Infinite-Light"), also known as the Buddha Amitayus ("Infinite-Life"), whose double name is shortened to "Amituo" in Chinese, "Amida" in Japanese and "Adida" in Korean and Vietnamese. He is preaching the Dharma in his buddha-field (buddhakshetra), or "pure land" (Chinese: jingtu, Japanese: jodo), named "the Happy One" (Sukhavati). Pure Land Buddhism is sometimes designated by the term "Amidism".

The Pure Land School was founded in China by Master Hui Yuan (334-416), the first Pure Land Patriarch, who taught that faith in the Buddha Amitabha and recitation of his name will ensure rebirth in Amitabha's Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. The Pure Land teaching began with the World Honored One Shakyamuni Buddha, who put special stress upon the Pure Land method in many Sutras, and has been disseminated through the generations of sage worthies.

Amitabha Buddha and bodhisattvas in Pure Land.

It is like the floating in the myriad ever-flowing rivers. The ones ahead do not look at the ones behind them, and the ones behind do not look at the ones ahead of them, but all of them meet in the ocean. Wordly life is also like this. Though some people are powerful and high-ranking and rich and happy and independet, not one of them manages to avoid old age and sickness and death. Because they do not believe in the Buddha's scriptures, they are unable to be born in the thousand buddha-lands. Therefore I say that the land of Amitabha is easy to go to and easy to attain. But people do not cultivate the practice needed to be born there. Instead they serve the ninety-six kinds of heretical paths. I call them people without eyes and ears.

Shakyamuni Buddha