Qi Dynasty Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara (Illustration)

Illustration

by Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin
published on 11 December 2018

Bodhisattvas are enlighted beings who have chosen to stay in the world to help others achieve Buddhahood. Avalokitesvara is the Bodhisattva of Compassion, known in Chinese as Guanyin. Guanyin is short for Guanshiyin, "he who listens to the cries of the world". This Guanyin is covered in heavy jewelry, whose forms are borrowed from Western and Central Asia. The rich adornment shows the growing popularity of Avalokitesvara in the 2nd half of the 6th century among devotees in China. From modern-day China. Northern Qi Dynasty, 550-577 CE. (The British Museum, London).

About the Author

Associate Professor of Neurology and lover of the Cradle of Civilization, Mesopotamia. I'm very interested in Mesopotamian history and always try to take photos of archaeological sites and artifacts in museums, both in Iraq and around the world.

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Uploaded by Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin, published on 11 December 2018 under the following license: Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.

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