1. Physical appearance of Avalokitesvara

The original Avalokitesvara was an acolyte of Amitabha, and a metamorphosis of Brahma Sahampati ‘Lord of the Earth’. As a transformation of Brahma, he was also known as Lokesvara or Lokanatha which are synonyms of Brahma. Later on, he became an independent deity, widely worshipped in his own right. He brought along with him other Lokesvaras or deities current in popular worship. He pronounced their hymns and thereby they were accepted in the Buddhist pantheon.

After convergence, other deities were rightly termed Lokanatha or Lokesvara in Nepal and not Avalokitesvara as in China. Avalokitesvara in China is based on the Bodhisattva’s main virtue and power, compassion, as expressed in the Lotus Sutra. He calls Padmapani.

The chapter of the Saddharmapundarika dealing with the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara is the “Samantamukha Parivarta”. It is the 25th chapter of Kumarajiva’s translation of the later Tsin, or Chin, dynasty, 384-417^[1], translated as the 24th chapter by kern from a palm-leaf manuscript dated 1039^[2], which deals with the miraculous nature and powers of Avalokitesvara. Suzuki uses Kumarajiva’s translation for his poetic English rendition of this chapter, named by the Japanese the Kannon-gyo, and by the Chinese the Kuan-yin ching.

An intriguing difference between these two translations, based on manuscripts dated more than five hundred years apart, is that Suzuki enumerates 35 forms, including female forms, in which the Bodhisattva can appear.^[3] The forms named by Suzuki are those of: Buddha, Pratyeka-Buddha, Sravaka, Brahma, Sakrendra, Isvara, Mahesvara, Cakravartin, Vaisravana, provincial chief, householder, lay disciple, state-officer, Brahmana, bhiksu, bhiksuni, upasaka, upasika; a female form of the family of a householder, or a lay disciple, or a state-officer, or a youth or maiden; deva, naga, yaksa, gandharva, asura, garuda, kinnara mahoraga, manusya, amanusya, or Vajrapani.^[4] If the Bodhisattva form is added but at the same time the female form of the family of a householder, lay disciple, state-officer or Brahmana is treated as only one form, the total comes to 33, which is the number of manifestation bodies in later Chinese, Vietnamese and Japanese Buddhism. The female aspect of Avalokitesvara in China, Vietnam and Japan is actually White-robed Kuan-yin. She is Pandara or Pandara-vasini in Sanskrit, the consort of Amitabha.^[5] The preference of ladies to worship a goddess led to her unprecedented popularity, so much so that she replaced the male Kuanyin. Kuan yin was originally the specific name of Avalokitesvara. Avalokitesvara becomes a goddess in China, and is most widely worshipped in this manifestation. In the Chinese cosmogony of yin and yang, yin is the feminine principle and stands for darkness. Avalokita appears in full-length white robes as a goddess. The white symbolizes purity, and thereby the feminine is perfection in the serene equilibrium of wisdom. The status of women in Confucian China underwent qualitative changes with the drastic alternation in sex, as Avalokita gained popularity in female form.

Avalokita has thirtythree manifestations in China, and represents the multiple fabric of social life, from the lowliest to the highest, from the down-to-earth upto the transcendent. Avalokita symbolizes untiring activity to help all beings in suffering, whether they was human or animal and plant, protective from natural calamities, and removal of social catastrophes. His supernal virtues are narrated in the Karanda-vyuha.

Strictly speaking neither Buddhas nor Bodhisattvas have any sex or personality, material property or existence.^[6] Still, because of the multiple forms and powers of Avalokitesvara, though the Bodhisattva is actually sexless, it is often regarded as female and even in English called the goddess of Mercy.^[7] A Buddhist Tantric scholar and practitioner, in discussing the mantra syllable sacred to Avalokitesvara: om mani padme hum mentions that the Bodhisattva, Kuan-yin has female form.^[8]

Scholar Blofeld argues that, though there are good psychological reasons for seeing compassion personified as a woman, he supposes Avalokitesvara’s Tantric consort Tara was an Indo-Tibetan amalgamation with the Bodhisattva to produce the female form. He reports that the Saddharmapundarika Sutra mentions 337 earthly incarnations of Avalokitesvara, of which all but one were male. The female incarnation was that of Balaka, the horse which rescued an incarnation of the future Buddha from raksasa in female form. He significantly points out that the Sutra merely allows of this Bodhisattva’s ability to assume female form if necessary but does not actually state that he was ever really born in any of the mentioned female forms. He follows this line of argument to the conclusion that Avalokitesvara is male and Kuan-yin has for centuries been perceived as female. The evidences to support the argument lies in the attributes of Tara, widely popular in Tibet and Mongolia, namely her power to rescue beings from their trouble and ridding them of delusions, the same functions as those carried out by Kuan-yin in China.

In India, Avalokitesvara was rarely applied to new Lokesvaras. As Lokesvara and Avalokitesvara were interchanged, the entrant popular deities or Lokesvaras came to be treated as forms of Avalokitesvara.^[9] Avalokitesvara became the prime symbol of interiorisation. Prevalent deities were brought in to make the Dharma intrinsically relevant to the existing patterns. The exclusivity of local elements became upaya ‘skillful means’ or presentation of Dharma in accord with the understanding of the devotee. The unfamiliar was presented through the familiar. Use of earlier potent spiritual symbols could tide over unconcern.

Nandana Chutiwongs also remark:

“Avalokitesvara, regarded as the active and living aspect of Amitabha, the Dhyani Buddha of our Kalpa, looks after the world in the interval between the disappearance of the Budha Sakyamuni and the advent of the Buddha Maitreya; hence he is often called ‘Lokesvara’ or ‘Lokanatha’, the Lord of the World. All these qualities account for his pre-eminent position in the pantheon and his great popularity among Mahayana worshippers, as is reflected in their literature and art from the very beginning of their history.”^[10]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Tove E. Neville, Eleven-Headed Avalokitesvara, Hardcover: 1999, p. 23.

[2]:

Ibid, p.24.

[3]:

Tove E. Neville, Eleven-Headed Avalokitesvara, Hardcover: 1999, p. 24.

[4]:

Ibid, p. 28.

[5]:

Ibid.

[6]:

Tove E. Neville, Eleven-Headed Avalokitesvara, Hardcover: 1999, p. 32.

[7]:

Ibid.

[8]:

Ibid, p. 34.

[9]:

Lokesh Chandra. Buddhism: Art and Values, New Delhi: 2007, p. 402.

[10]:

N. Chutiwongs, The Iconography of Avalokitesvara in Mainland SEA, Delhi: 2002, p. 14.