70) In a similar mode, pilgrims travelling from China to India testified to the power of prayers offered to
Avalokiteshvara (Guanyin in China), who was specifically associated with cults for mariners.
The second tour de force is a thousand-year-old, over life-size fragmentary head of the bodhisattva
Avalokiteshvara made in the complex--and of course, extremely fragile --'dry lacquer' technique that allows for particularly refined modelling and detailing (Fig.
A long panel, depicting eight life-size icons of the Bodhisatva
Avalokiteshvara on its western gallery was once the highlight of the Banteay Chhmar temple.
The spectacular wooden statue of
Avalokiteshvara in the Mahayana Pavilion measures 27.
The most amazing thing is that there was an Indian style scroll painting of the five tantric manifestations of
Avalokiteshvara (don zhags lha lnga), the tutelary deity of Mahapandita Shakyashri.
As far as I can tell, the Dalai Lama claims to be the manifestation of someone called
Avalokiteshvara, who was apparently some sort of a god - though not the angry bearded divinity with which we non-Buddhists are familiar.
Highlights of the exhibition will include a woodblock image of
Avalokiteshvara from the ninth century that was recovered from the desert oasis of Dunhuang.
The main image in one of the Dukhangs is that of
Avalokiteshvara, a Bodhisattva who embodies the compassion of all Buddhas, who is represented with 1,000 arms and 11 heads.
This role is indeed consistent with the Tibetan Buddhist notion that Dalai Lamas are incarnations of the Bodhisattva of Compassion,
Avalokiteshvara.
At this temple in the city of Angkor Thom, King Jayavarman VII built 54 towers and decorated them with 216 faces representing the deity
Avalokiteshvara.
The Dalai Lama, regarded by Tibetan Buddhists as the Bodhisattva
Avalokiteshvara, expresses this ideal in the following poem: "For as long as space endures, / And for as long as living beings remain, / Until then may I, too, abide, / To dispel the misery of the world.
Martin Rotting, "Erlosung im Buddhismus:
Avalokiteshvara und Shunyata--Impulse aus dem Dialog der Religionen," pp.