Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara (Guanyin 觀音)

Anonyme

The bodhisattva is sitting in the position of royal ease (Rājalīlāsana) on the island of Mount Potalaka, the deity’s dwelling in the Southern Ocean. This form of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara is described in the Avātaṃsaka Sῡtra, three Chinese translations of which are recorded from between the 5th and 8th centuries. These depictions of “Avalokiteshvara of the Southern Seas” (Nanhai Guanyin) were especially common from the 10th to the 14th centuries, particularly in Shanxi province where two important Buddhist sites are located, Taiyuan and Wutaishan. The best specimens are perhaps those dating to the Jin dynasty (1115-1234). The imposing Schulmann Guanyin is much more recent and attests to the perpetuation of this iconographic and stylistic approach in the 14th and 15th centuries.