I came across this statue for sale, at Eastern Serenity, which also sells plenty of other Buddhist paraphernalia.From the site's description of the statue, a modern-day replica of Northern Song China original based on a 19th Century reproduction:
"This Chinese Song dynasty image mid-way in the gender transition from the Indian and masculine icon of Avalokitesvara to its Chinese and feminine variation adopts the languid seated pose known as lalitasana - seated with the right hand resting on the raised knee - suggesting the confidence of royalty and the self-assurance of imperial power. Style reinforces the courtly image of ease femininity and grace."
In other words, this is a transitional piece from male Avalokitesvara to female Kwan Yin. Just like me.
The whole reason for the gender change is also explained; it was to take the qualities of Avalokitesvara (his ability to hear the cries for help and sacrifice himself for humankind) and augment him with the qualities of China's fertility and procreation Goddesses, so that practitioners of indigenous Chinese Goddess religions could easily adopt Buddhism. Otherwise, the male supremacy of Orthodox Buddhism (which stated that only men could reach true enlightenment) would've been a much harder sell.
Here's the actual page selling the statue. I am tempted to order one, and might - unless I find a nice Kwan Yin statue for sale during one of my numerous Buddhist temple visits in South Korea.
Eastern Serenity
The site also sells another Kwan Yin statue - this one has a dozen arms, sort of like Hindu God Vishnu. Kwan Yin has been known to grow multiple faces and arms to better be able to do her work.
6 comments:
I actually was studying the original of this the other day.
I like it very much! It is such a pose of confidence it is hard not to feel like you want to hear her advice.
She just seems...sassy!
Christy
"Sassy?" That's a gross understatement. :)
And besides, Kwan Yin doesn't preach. She spreads her message of compassion through action.
I'm leaving in 48 hours. Looking forward to seeing lots of Kwan Yin statues once I get to Korea.
Ally McRepuke
Christy, one more thing:
Look at the following page, which lists the world's tallest extant statues:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_statues_by_height
Looks like I might be a bit disappointed during my trip, since the Koreans are not in the race to build the tallest Kwan Yin (I'd blame the Christian community for that). It's a 3-way race between China, Taiwan, and Japan. The tallest Kwan Yin is over 100 meters tall on her own - by contrast, the Statue of Liberty, even with the pedestal, is only 93 meters (46 without).
The tallest Korean statue is indeed a Buddhist one, but he's the Happy Buddha, not Kwan Yin. The second tallest is Kim Il-sung.
Ally McRepuke
To me, the height is not so important as the qualities the goddess embodies. I absolutely love the naturalness of her posture in this statue. Not enormously tall, but beautifully serene and compassionate.
Perhaps she needs all 8 arms. She was Goddess of many attributes. Perhaps the two arms make her teachings more accessible to all.
I don't want her to be the biggest. I want her to be much loved.
woz
Good point! But I do like to see a towering Kwan Yin over me - if only to feel enveloped by her presence.
I guess I'll have to wait until a future trip to China or Japan for that to happen.
BTW... Kwan Yin has been known to sprout up to 1000 eyes and 1000 arms. See this Vietnamese example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Quan_Am_1656.jpg
Ally McRepuke
Wow - all seeing; all knowing; all feeling; all reaching; all touching. And yet, with all the qualities inherent in her, I prefer the one pictured on the blog page.
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