The White Lotus Sect (Bai Lian Jiao 白莲教) was a millenarian movement with Buddhist traditions that several times in history ignited large-scale popular uprisings against the ruling dynasties. The religious background of the White Lotus Sect goes back to the Pure Land School (Jing Tu Zong - 净土宗) whose oldest patriarch, Huiyuan 慧远 (334-416 CE), founded White Lotus Societies (Bai Lian She 白莲社 or Lian She 莲社 "Lotus Societies") in Donglin Monastery 东林寺 near Mt. Lushan 庐山.