Measurements: 8-3/4" H

18th Century Chinese Tibetan Qing Dynasty gilt bronze Bodhisattva Buddha figure of a male face Guanyin with Athe eyes and serene face, wear reticulated headdress and elaborate floral-decorated robe and jewelry, a silk belt is draped over the figure body, and wraps around both arms. Hands in vitarka mudra gesture position of appeasement. Seated cross-legged in full Lotus position upon a double lotus throne. Guanyin occupies a unique place in the Mahayana Buddhist pantheon. Buddhist sutras speak of several bodhisattvas but it is Avalokiteshvara/Guanyin who is revered and adored by followers of both Hinayana and Mahayana Buddhism and by all art lovers. He/she has acquired a status equal to the Buddha and sometimes his importance surpasses even the Buddha's. The Westerners know the deity as the Chinese goddess of love and compassion. If Buddhism has been the greatest contribution of India to world religions, the transformation of Indian Avalokiteshvara to Guanyin-the Goddess of Mercy -is the creation and contribution of China to the Buddhist world. Despite three major setbacks suffered by Buddhism in Chinese history, the symbol of Guanyin, the goddess of mercy however had continued to prosper and flourish and has rightly been called the "cult of half Asia". Avalokiteshvara who is a male Bodhisattva in India was transformed into a goddess in a Chinese male oriented society. A preliminary statement can be made here, that Sinicization of Buddhism led to the creation of the Goddess of mercy with Chinese characteristics from a male deity with Indian characteristics. This transformation of a male deity from India into a female Goddess of mercy in a strongly patriarchal Chinese society both at the terrestrial and celestial levels has surprised many. Celestial because for any woman to gain entrance into the Paradise of Amitabha, she should shed her female form and assume a male form. For a female divinity to have grown in the terrestrial level in a male dominated society, and to have given rise to a cult is equally strange. It is not that there were no goddesses prior to the introduction of Buddhism in China. The underside with incised quatrefoil flori-form petal visvavajra mark surrounding the centralized DaiJi. Extensive trace of gilt remain on surface.

Over all in EXCELLENT condition. With normal anomalies in nature, sign of stressed surface, minor scratch & dents. Surface traced wear and or declined to gilding. Normal, consider ages and wear.
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