Dimensions: 8-1/2" H

Chinese Tibetan gilt bronze of Guanyin Bodhisattva Buddha figure of Avalokiteshvara Chaturbhuja, the All Seeing Lord with Four Hands. Three Deity Chaturbhuja originating in the Karandavyuha Sutra, also for the first use of the six syllable mantra om mani padme hum. As the nature of all buddhas, Avalokiteshvara, very resplendent, peaceful and radiant. Downcast eyes under delicately arched brows, with the face slightly smiling, peaceful appearance, the hair is arranged in rows of coils that also cover the head, his ears have been traditionally pierced and elongated.
With four hands the first are folded at the heart, the two raised hands hold a crystal mala and jeweled lotus, two beautiful feet seated in vajra posture, adorned with many attractive silks and jewels, beautified with dark blue hair in tufts and some loose gracefully to the shoulder. On the crown of the head, the wisdom of all Buddhas, is the Lord, source of all refuge gathered as one, in essence the Guru in the aspect of Amitabha, in the manner of the Lord of the Family, seated happily. Extensive trace of gilt remain on surface, with hints of dark-blue pigment on hair.


LOT NOTES:
GuanYin occupies a unique place in the Mahayana Buddhist pantheon. Buddhist sutras speak of several bodhisattvas but it is Avalokiteshvara/Guanyin who is revered and adored by followers of both Hinayana and Mahayana Buddhism and by all art lovers. He/she has acquired a status equal to the Buddha and sometimes his importance surpasses even the Buddha's. The Westerners know the deity as the Chinese goddess of love and compassion. If Buddhism has been the greatest contribution of India to world religions, the transformation of Indian Avalokiteshvara to Guanyin-the Goddess of Mercy -is the creation and contribution of China to the Buddhist world. Despite three major setbacks suffered by Buddhism in Chinese history, the symbol of Guanyin, the goddess of mercy however had continued to prosper and flourish and has rightly been called the "cult of half Asia". Avalokiteshvara who is a male Bodhisattva in India was transformed into a goddess in a Chinese male oriented society. A preliminary statement can be made here, that sinicization of Buddhism led to the creation of the Goddess of mercy with Chinese characteristics from a male deity with Indian characteristics. This transformation of a male deity from India into a female Goddess of mercy in a strongly patriarchal Chinese society both at the terrestrial and celestial levels has surprised many. Celestial because for any woman to gain entrance into the Paradise of Amitabha, she should shed her female form and assume a male form. For a female divinity to have grown in the terrestrial level in a male dominated society, and to have given rise to a cult is equally strange. It is not that there were no goddesses prior to the introduction of Buddhism in China.

Over all in EXCELLENT condition. With normal anomalies in nature, sign of stressed surface, minor scratch & dents. Surface traced wear and or declined to gilding. Normal, consider ages and wear.
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