A random religious note: Kuan Yin
Posted on 2005-06-20 at 08:01
Kuan Yin ("She who hears our prayers") is the Chinese goddess of mercy, adapted into Buddhism in the form of one of her many transformations, Avalokitesvara. Also referred to as "great mercy and pity", "Salvation from woe", and "The self-existent one with a thousand arms and eyes". Some scholars of world religions have suggested that the Virgin Mary is a Western adaptation of Kuan Yin; there are marked similiarities but it would be difficult to establish a defensible historical connection. A connection between Kuan Yin and the shared human needs of mankind in general, however, is obvious but of little value to authentic scholarship.
"She", until some time in the twelfth century, was a "he"; but this kind of switch is not unusual in Eastern iconography. She is most often represented as a handsome, gracious woman dressed in mostly white, flowing or otherwise beautifully draped, hooded garments. However gracious, she also communicates enormous "power"---sometimes in subtle, more often in obvious (multiple heads, hands, weapons, etc.) ways. In this image she holds the vase with the "holy water" of life and mercy, which she abundantly disperses upon the faithful in response to prayer. She often rides a lion or tiger which suggest her absolute dominion over the powers of nature. That is, if she can dominate the most powerful of beasts, she can control any force of nature. There are literally thousands of forms of this goddess and more being created even today.
