Avalokiteshvara:
One of the deities
most frequently seen on altars in China's temples is Quan
Yin (also spelled Kwan Yin, Kuanyin; in pinyin, Guanyin).
In Sanskrit, her name is Padma-pani, or "Born of the
Lotus." Quan Yin, alone among Buddhist gods, is loved
rather than feared and is the model of Chinese beauty. Regarded
by the Chinese as the goddess of mercy, she was originally
male until the early part of the 12th century and has evolved
since that time from her prototype, Avalokiteshvara, "the
merciful lord of utter enlightment," an Indian bodhisattva
who chose to remain on earth to bring relief to the suffering
rather than enjoy for himself the ecstasies of Nirvana.
One of the several stories surrounding Quan Yin is that
she was a Buddhist who through great love and sacrifice
during life, had earned the right to enter Nirvana after
death. However, like Avlokiteshvara, while standing before
the gates of Paradise she heard a cry of anguish from the
earth below.
Turning back to earth,
she renounced her reward of bliss eternal but in its place
found immortality in the hearts of the suffering. In China
she has many names and is also known as "great mercy,
great pity; salvation from misery, salvation from woe; self-existent;
thousand arms and thousand eyes," etc. In addition
she is often referred to as the Goddess of the Southern
Sea -- or Indian Archipelago -- and has been compared to
the Virgin Mary. She is one of the San Ta Shih, or the Three
Great Beings, renowned for their power over the animal kingdom
or the forces of nature. These three Bodhisattvas or P'u
Sa as they are know in China, are namely Manjusri (Skt.)
or Wên Shu, Samantabhadra or P'u Hsien, and Avalokitesvara
or Quan Yin.
Quan Yin is a shortened
form of a name that means One Who Sees and Hears the Cry
from the Human World. Her Chinese title signifies, "She
who always observes or pays attention to sounds," i.e.,
she who hears prayers. Sometimes possessing eleven heads,
she is surnamed Sung-Tzu-Niang-Niang, "lady who brings
children." She is goddess of fecundity as well as of
mercy. Worshipped especially by women, this goddess comforts
the troubled, the sick, the lost, the senile and the unfortunate.
Her popularity has grown such through the centuries that
she is now also regarded as the protector of seafarers,
farmers and travelers. She cares for souls in the underworld,
and is invoked during post-burial rituals to free the soul
of the deceased from the torments of purgatory. There are
temples all over China dedicated to this goddess, and she
is worshipped by women in South China more than in the North,
on the 19th day of the 2nd, 6th and 9th moons. (For example,
it is a prevalent birth custom in Foochow that when a family
has a daughter married since the 15th day of the previous
year, who has not yet given birth to a male infant, a present
of several articles is sent to her by her relatives on a
lucky day between the 5th and 14th of the first month. The
articles sent are as follows: a paper lantern bearing a
picture of the Goddess of Mercy, Quan Yin, with a child
in her arms, and the inscription, "May Quan Yin present
you with a son"; oysters in an earthenware vessel;
rice-cakes; oranges; and garlic.) Worshippers ask for sons,
wealth, and protection. She can bring children (generally
sons, but if the mother asks for a daughter she will be
beautiful), protect in sorrow, guide seamen and fishermen
(thus we see her "crossing the waves" in many
poses), and render harmless the spears of an enemy in battle.
Her principal temple on the island of Putuoshan, in the
Chusan Archipelago off the Zhejiang coast near Ningbo, is
a major pilgrimage site sacred to the Buddhists, the worship
of Quan Yin being its most prominent feature on account
of the fact that the Goddess is said to have resided there
for nine years, reigning as the Queen of the Southern Seas.
The full name of the island is P'u t'o lo ka, from Mount
Pataloka, whence the Goddess, in her transformation as Avalokiteshvara,
looks down upon mankind. Miao Feng Shan (Mount of the Wondrous
Peak) attracts large numbers of pilgrims, who use rattles
and fireworks to emphasize their prayers and attract her
attention. In 847, the first temple of Quan Yin was built
on this island. By 1702, P'u Tuo had four hundred temples
and three thousand monks, and was the destination of countless
pilgrims. (By 1949, however, P'u Tuo was home to only 140
monasteries and temples.)
No other figure in the
Chinese pantheon appears in a greater variety of images,
of which there are said to be thousands of different incarnations
or manifestations. Quan Yin is usually depicted as a barefoot,
gracious woman dressed in beautiful, white flowing robes,
with a white hood gracefully draped over the top of the
head and carrying a small upturned vase of holy dew. (However,
in the Lamaistic form, common in bronze from eighteenth-century
China and Tibet, she is often entirely naked.) She stands
tall and slender, a figure of infinite grace, her gently
composed features conveying the sublime selflessness and
compassion that have made her the favorite of all deities.
She may be seated on an elephant, standing on a fish, nursing
a baby, holding a basket, having six arms or a thousand,
and one head or eight, one atop the next, and four, eighteen,
or forty hands, which which she strives to alleviate the
sufferings of the unhappy. She is frequently depicted as
riding a mythological animal known as the Hou, which somewhat
resembles a Buddhist lion, and symbolises the divine supremacy
exercised by Quan Yin over the forces of nature. Her bare
feet are the consistent quality. On public altars, Quan
Yin is frequently flanked by two acolytes, to her right
a barefoot, shirtless youth with his hands clasped in prayer
known as Shan-ts'ai (Golden Youth), and on her left a maid
demurely holding her hands together inside her sleeves known
as Lung-nü (Jade Maiden). Her principal feast occurs yearly
on the nineteenth day of the second lunar month. However,
she is fortunate in having three birthdays, the nineteenth
of the second, sixth and ninth months. There are many metamorphoses
of this goddess. She is the model of Chinese beauty, and
to say a lady or a little girl is a Kwan Yin is the highest
compliment that can be paid to grace and loveliness.
According to one ancient
legend her name was Miao Shan, and she was the daughter
of an Indian Prince. Youthful and serene, she chose to follow
a path of self-sacrifice and virtue, and became a pious
follower of Buddha, herself attaining the right to budddhahood
but remaining on earth to help mankind. In order to convert
her blind father, she visited him transfigured as a stranger,
and informed him that were he to swallow an eyeball of one
of his children, his sight would be restored. His children
would not consent to the necessary sacrifice, whereupon
the future goddess created an eye which her parent swallowed
and he regained his sight. She then persuaded her father
to join the Buddhist priesthood by pointing out the folly
and vanity of a world in which children would not even sacrifice
an eye for the sake of a parent.
Another Miao Shan legend
was that the son of the dragon king had taken the form of
a carp and was caught by a fisherman and displayed for sale
in the market place. Miao Shan sent her servant to buy the
fish and released it.
As related in yet another
legend Quan Yin was said to be the daughter of a sovereign
of the Chou dynasty, who strenously opposed her wish to
be a nun, and was so irritated by her refusal to marry that
he put her to humiliating tasks in the convent. This means
of coercion failed, and her father then ordered her to be
executed for disobedience to his wishes. But the executioner,
a man of tender heart and some forethought, brought it about
that the sword which was to descend upon her should break
into a thousand pieces. Her father thereupon ordered her
to be stifled. As the story goes, she forthwith went to
Hell, but on her arrival the flames were quenched and flowers
burst into bloom. Yama, the presiding officer, looked on
in dismay at what seemed to be the summary abolition of
his post, and in order to keep his position he sent her
back to life again. Carried in the fragrant heart of a lotus
flower she went to the island of Putuo, near Ningbo. One
day her father fell ill and according to a Chinese custom,
she cut the flesh from her arms that it might be made into
medicine. A cure was effected, and in his gratitude her
father ordered her statue to be made "with completely-formed
arms and eyes." Owing to a misunderstanding of the
orders the sculptor carved the statue with many heads and
many arms, and so it remains to this day.
The image of this divinity
is generally placed on a special altar at the back of the
great Shakyamuni Buddha behind a screen, and facing the
north door, in the second half of the Buddhist monastery.
Quan Yin is also worshipped by the Taoists, and they imitate
the Buddhists in their descriptions of this deity, speaking
in the same manner of her various metamorphoses, her disposition
to save the lost, her purity, wisdom, and marvel-working
power.
From early Ch'ing times
to the present, many thousands of statues of Quan Yin have
been carved in jade. The Maternal Goddess, the Protectress
of Children, the Observer of All Sounds, Quan Yin is a favorite
figure in domestic shrines. As well, her image is carved
on small jades which Chinese women offer faithfully at the
temples dedicated to her. She also is the single most important
figure crafted in blanc de Chine ware, with approximately
nine out of every ten figures from Dehua representing that
divinity in one or other of her manifestations. (The Quan
Yins often were described to European purchasers as "white
Santa Marias," so as to make them more desirable to
a Christian market.)
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