It's been a while since I've posted and the main reasons for this is my family - they came up to visit me these last few weeks which has been nice. Nice, to spend some time with them and also nice to get away from the constant drudgery of work.
But after talking to a very nice man last night, I have been thinking of bigger new projects to start. As I have always written, whether poetry, articles, novellas and novels, I am thinking of writing a book on mythology.
Mythology has always been a big part of my life. Not having a lovely childhood in the neighbourhood that I lived in as a child, these ancient stories gave me a way out of that horrible place. They clamed me down, fascinating and entertaining me all at the same time. I want to do that for someone else.
So, a book on mythology it is. But what aspect? Do I write one for children or adults? Where do I lean towards - Greek, Norse, Chinese, Native American, Mesoamerican, Mesopotamian? Shall I go for places that are not quite well known, like the myths and legends from the Pacific Islands or Africa or Central Asia?
The possibilities are endless! And so are the myths! What should I do?
This is where you come in, my friends! Yes, ha ha ha, you are going to get caught into my sticky little web of mythology.
What I would like is a few suggestions as to what myths and legends YOU would like to know about. After a few suggestions I will then know what direction I should be heading in.
As I was talking to my friend last night, I realised that I had missed writing books (I do write alot of articles but its not the same). This book I intend to write has filled me with excitement. I hope to do the same for you.
Sweet dreams to you all,
The Archaeology Queen.
aka Lian.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Sunday, October 04, 2009
The History and Significance of the goddess Guanyin
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.
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.
Thursday, October 01, 2009
The History and Significance of the god Ninigi
Ninigi, who is also known as Honinigi, is one of the great ancestral deities from the Japanese Shinto belief system. He was the son of Ame-no-Oshiho-mimi and the grandson of Taka-mi-musubi and the sun goddess Amaterasu.
According to mythology, Amaterasu had been desperately trying to find someone worthy of ruling over earth. Initially, she sent her son, Ame-no-Oshiho-mimi, to rule but as he looked over the Floating Bridge of Heaven, he saw the many disturbances on earth and refused to go.
The gods gathered and decided that Ame-No-Hohi should be sent. However, after three years the gods had not heard from him so they decided that his son, Ame-No-Wakahiko, should investigate. Before he left, they gave him a bow and arrows.
Ame-No-Wakahiko went to earth and eventually married Shitateru-Hime, the daughter of Okuninushi, the god of medicine and magic. This time, eight years passed without any word to the rest of the gods. Determined to find out, they sent a pheasant down to watch him.
The pheasant perched outside a tree of the god’s house. When one of the women of the house saw it, she told Ame-No-Wakahiko that it was a bad omen and immediately, the god shot it. However, the arrow passed straight through the bird and entered heaven, falling straight at the feet of Amaterasu. Recognising the arrow, she flung it back at the direction it came in fury, where it killed Ame-No-Wakahiko.
Two of the gods then visited earth themselves and came before Okuninushi, who told him that they had come on the sun goddess’ orders to bring peace and prosperity to the land under her control. Okuninushi spoke to his sons; the elder son agreed to worship Amaterasu but the younger son refused. The two gods then overcame the younger son who then promised not to resist the goddess. Okuninushi also agreed to recognise the sun goddess’ rule, on the condition that a place should be reserved for him amongst the major deities worshipped at the Izumo shrine. This Amaterasu agreed to.
The great sun goddess finally sent her grandson, Ninigi, to earth. Before he left, he was given many divine objects, including the mirror that Amaterasu had gazed into when she first emerged from the cave. He was also given the jewels that had produced Amaterasu’s sons and the storm god Susano-Wo’s sword, Kusanagi. It was these signs that would become the emblems of Japanese imperial power in later years.
On earth, Ninigi married Kono-Hana-Sakuyu-Hime, the daughter of a mountain god. When she conceived their child on the first night of their marriage, Ninigi suspected that she had been unfaithful to him. He built her a house with no doors and when she was ready to give birth, she entered it. She stated that if she had been unfaithful then her child would die. Eventually, Kono-Hana-Sakuyu-Hime gave birth to three sons; one of them, Hikohohodemi, would later go on to father a child who, upon his death, would be known as Jimmu-Tenno. It would be Jimmu-Tenno that would be the founder of the imperial line of Japan.
Looking at the history and significance of the god, one scholar states that Ninigi was the “exemplary ‘archetype’ of the historical Japanese emperors who, based on the richness and abundance of the rice harvest, maintain the cosmic order overarching the three cosmic zones”. His myth also establishes the most important event in the traditional, official myth structure of early Japan, accentuating the divine derivation of the imperial family line and the kinship theology, established in the Kojiki (compiled 712 CE) and the Nihongi (720 CE).
Bibliography:
Waida, Wanabu (1976) Sacred Kingship in Early Japan: A historical Introduction, History of Religions, The University of Chicago Press.
Waida, Wanabu (1973) Symbolism of “Descent” in Tibetan Sacred Kingship and Some East Asian Parallels, Numen, BRILL.
According to mythology, Amaterasu had been desperately trying to find someone worthy of ruling over earth. Initially, she sent her son, Ame-no-Oshiho-mimi, to rule but as he looked over the Floating Bridge of Heaven, he saw the many disturbances on earth and refused to go.
The gods gathered and decided that Ame-No-Hohi should be sent. However, after three years the gods had not heard from him so they decided that his son, Ame-No-Wakahiko, should investigate. Before he left, they gave him a bow and arrows.
Ame-No-Wakahiko went to earth and eventually married Shitateru-Hime, the daughter of Okuninushi, the god of medicine and magic. This time, eight years passed without any word to the rest of the gods. Determined to find out, they sent a pheasant down to watch him.
The pheasant perched outside a tree of the god’s house. When one of the women of the house saw it, she told Ame-No-Wakahiko that it was a bad omen and immediately, the god shot it. However, the arrow passed straight through the bird and entered heaven, falling straight at the feet of Amaterasu. Recognising the arrow, she flung it back at the direction it came in fury, where it killed Ame-No-Wakahiko.
Two of the gods then visited earth themselves and came before Okuninushi, who told him that they had come on the sun goddess’ orders to bring peace and prosperity to the land under her control. Okuninushi spoke to his sons; the elder son agreed to worship Amaterasu but the younger son refused. The two gods then overcame the younger son who then promised not to resist the goddess. Okuninushi also agreed to recognise the sun goddess’ rule, on the condition that a place should be reserved for him amongst the major deities worshipped at the Izumo shrine. This Amaterasu agreed to.
The great sun goddess finally sent her grandson, Ninigi, to earth. Before he left, he was given many divine objects, including the mirror that Amaterasu had gazed into when she first emerged from the cave. He was also given the jewels that had produced Amaterasu’s sons and the storm god Susano-Wo’s sword, Kusanagi. It was these signs that would become the emblems of Japanese imperial power in later years.
On earth, Ninigi married Kono-Hana-Sakuyu-Hime, the daughter of a mountain god. When she conceived their child on the first night of their marriage, Ninigi suspected that she had been unfaithful to him. He built her a house with no doors and when she was ready to give birth, she entered it. She stated that if she had been unfaithful then her child would die. Eventually, Kono-Hana-Sakuyu-Hime gave birth to three sons; one of them, Hikohohodemi, would later go on to father a child who, upon his death, would be known as Jimmu-Tenno. It would be Jimmu-Tenno that would be the founder of the imperial line of Japan.
Looking at the history and significance of the god, one scholar states that Ninigi was the “exemplary ‘archetype’ of the historical Japanese emperors who, based on the richness and abundance of the rice harvest, maintain the cosmic order overarching the three cosmic zones”. His myth also establishes the most important event in the traditional, official myth structure of early Japan, accentuating the divine derivation of the imperial family line and the kinship theology, established in the Kojiki (compiled 712 CE) and the Nihongi (720 CE).
Bibliography:
Waida, Wanabu (1976) Sacred Kingship in Early Japan: A historical Introduction, History of Religions, The University of Chicago Press.
Waida, Wanabu (1973) Symbolism of “Descent” in Tibetan Sacred Kingship and Some East Asian Parallels, Numen, BRILL.
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