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Kuan-yin : the Chinese transformation of Avalokitesìvara
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Kuan-yin : the Chinese transformation of Avalokitesìvara Trade paperback - 2000

by Chün-fang Yü

  • Used
  • Paperback

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Columbia University Press, September 2000. Trade Paperback . Used - fine. A square, tight and unmarked copy.
Used - Fine
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First line

Kuan-yin (Perceiver of Sounds), or Kuan-shih-yin (Perceiver of the World's Sounds) is the Chinese name for Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, who has been worshiped throughout the Buddhist world.

From the rear cover

By far one of the most important objects of worship in the Buddhist traditions, the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara is regarded as the embodiment of compassion. While he was closely identified with the royalty in South and Southeast Asia, and the Tibetans continue to this day to view the Dalai Lamas as his incarnations, in China he became a she -- Kuan-yin, the "Goddess of Mercy" -- and has a very different history. The causes and processes of this metamorphosis have perplexed Buddhist scholars for centuries.

In this groundbreaking study, Chun-fang Yu discusses this dramatic transformation of the (male) Indian bodhisattva Avalokitesvara into the (female) Chinese Kuan-yin -- from a relatively minor figure in the Buddha's retinue to a universal savior and one of the most popular deities in Chinese religion.

Focusing on the various media through which the feminine Kuan-yin became constructed and domesticated in China, Yu thoroughly examines Buddhist scriptures, miracle stories, pilgrimages, popular literature, and monastic and local gazetteers -- as well as the changing iconography reflected in Kuan-yin's images and artistic representations -- to determine the role these materials played in this amazing transformation. The book eloquently depicts the domestication of Kuan-yin as a case study of the indigenization of Buddhism in China and illuminates the ways this beloved deity has affected the lives of all Chinese people down the ages.

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About the author

Chn-fang Y is professor and chair of the Department of Religion at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. She is the author of The Renewal of Buddhism in China: Chu-hung and the Late Ming Synthesis (Columbia) and coeditor of Pilgrims and Sacred Sites in China.

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