From Male to Female: The Varied Attributes of Buddhist God(dess) Kuanyin

THE HINDU
By B. Kotaiah

Image courtesy of Essence of the Divine Blog

Kuanyin (also written as Guanyin) is a widely represented Buddhist goddess in Chinese art. The very spirit of compassion and kindness, Kuanyin is worshipped for various benefits: she gives children to barren women; she protects sailors and saves them from ship wreck; she takes pity on those who suffer in hell and intercedes for them. Such is the hold this female deity has on the imagination of the Chinese artists that in no branch of Chinese art has she been left out. Curiously, the goddess Kuanyin had been a male divinity – Avalokiteswara Bodhisattva -- till the 8th century in Chinese Buddhism. However, after the 8th century AD the Chinese tradition gained supremacy in image-making and in the case of one Buddhist chief divinity, namely Avalokiteswara Bodhisattva, the Indian influence has all but been erased after the 8th century. [link]