Although the Buddhist religion venerates the Buddha, there are, in fact, a range of deities that continue to be worshipped. The Chinese Buddhist goddess Guanyin, or Kuan Yin, is one of these and a very popular deity throughout history.
The goddess of compassion and/or mercy, Guanyin is an interesting deity as she developed from the male bodhisavatta, or ‘buddha-to-be’, Avalokiteshvara. Throughout the years that Buddhism was introduced into China (around the first century CE), Avalokiteshvara developed female characteristics until he was completely female and was renamed Guanyin. In Japan, she is known as Kwannon.
There is another myth that claims that the goddess was originally born a mortal princess, named Maio Shan, who strangled herself. However, the Buddha revived her and placed her upon an island where she stayed for nine years before she became a goddess.
Another legend tells that she refused to marry and in retaliation her father sentenced her to death. However, when the executioner brought down the sword to behead her, the sword broke and she was unharmed. Later, her father had her smothered and she died. Upon arriving in the underworld, the gloomy place was transformed into a paradise which was not suited to Yama, the ruling god, so he had her revived.
Throughout history, Guanyin was highly popular with women and children and there have been sources which state that a month after a young woman’s marriage, she would be gifted with a pair of candlesticks and a censor with the image of Guanyin on them. These objects would be items where she could turn to, if times were troubled.
There has been much debate as to her origins and the transformation of her gender. Indeed, when she was first introduced into China, she had male attributes and one scholar suggests that it is the romantic legend of the princess Maio Shan that encouraged her feminine attributes.
Indeed, according to some scholars, there was no goddess of mercy in China before the arrival of Buddhism from India, although it should be stressed that not all scholars agree with this point. However, despite this, it is clear that she has strong Indian roots and was considered male until around the seventh or eighth century CE when she was transformed into a female form. From the 12th century onwards, this became her general form and when she was considered a goddess.
Her name can be translated as meaning ‘she who hears the sounds (prayers) of mortals; she who looks down upon the world and hears its cries’ and is also called the ‘Goddess of the Southern Sea’. She is commonly depicted with 1000 arms and eyes, due to the Maio Shan legend where her father commissioned a statue in her honour, but due to a misunderstanding with the artisan, he sculptured her likeness but with 1000 arms and eyes.
It is likely that she is a goddess of the sea due to her legend where she was placed on an island by the Buddha, or when the god Yama had her reborn on an island after her death. In this role, she is often depicted in temples with the waves of the sea and rocks around her. Before sailors set off for voyages, she was prayed to for protection, and those who had escaped shipwrecks often offered her gifts for her protection.
It is likely that it is her relationship with the sea that she is often prayed to for rain. When villages experience drought, the people often take her statues out of the temples and carried out in procession.
Guanyin, in both her mythology and the historical influence she had, is of great interest to historians. Indeed, her Indian and male roots and then the merging of feminine characteristics from a highly popular myth to create a fully female deity makes her a fascinating character who offers great insight into not only the history of the Indian and Chinese cultures, but to the history of religion as a whole.
Bibliography:
Chamberlayne, John H. (1962) The Development of Kuan Yin: Chinese Goddess of Mercy, Numen, BRILL.
She is still very strong in Tibet where she is known as Tara. I dreamt about her once, very scary but compassionate.
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