Item: Bodhisattva Quan Yin
Material: Sandstone
Style: Southeast Asia, China
Specs: 23 cm * 12 cm * 16 cm
( Avalokitasvara or Avalokiteshvara; Kannon-bosatsu): Also known as Perceiver of Sounds. Widely known by his Chinese name Kuan-yin (Perceiver of Sounds), he is one of the most popular bodhisattvas in the Buddhist world and revered as the bodhisattva of infinite compassion. The bodhisattva is the protagonist of the “Perceiver of the World’s Sounds” (twenty-fifth) chapter of the Lotus Sutra, which is also known as an independent sutra. According to that chapter, this bodhisattva is called Perceiver of the World’s Sounds because he perceives the sounds and voices of those who are suffering and compassionately releases them from that suffering. He assumes various forms and appears wherever is necessary to save people from danger or fear.
The transformation of Avalokitasvara, a male Bodhisattva to an androgynous figure and eventually a goddess in China is largely due to local cultural influences. Her transformation is an example of the interaction between the Buddhist personification of compassion (karuna) of the bodhisattva ideal and the influence of indigenous goddess cults and local heroines. The feminization process began in the T’ang period with the appearance of the White-robed Kuan-yin. Since the sixteenth century, she has become the most popular Chinese goddess in arts, folklores, and devotion.