According to an account in the Biographies of Eminent Monks, Ksitigharbha descended to live on earth 1,500 years after the death of Sakyamuni in the form of a monk from the kingdom of Silla, in what is now Korea. He sailed to China in the year A.D. 653, during the reign of the T'ang Emperor Kao-tsung, and took up residence in a monastery on Mt. Chiu-hua, in modern Anhwei province.
有趣的是，佛教傳入中國後，地藏菩薩也難免被「本土化」：根據高僧傳記載，地藏王在佛祖寂滅後一千五百年降生在新羅國（今天的韓國一帶），俗姓為金，凡名喬覺，唐高宗永徽四年時，他航海到位於安徽省的九華山，端坐在九子峰頂七十五年，於唐玄宗開元十六年七月卅日得道，計年九十九歲。