The Ambiguity of the Gender of Avalokiteśvara: A Comparative Study on the Representations of Avalokiteśvara from India and China during Sui-Tang-Period

Abstract

Buddhism was transmitted to China during the Han Dynasty (202 BCE-220 CE) and integrated with existing Chinese cultures such as Confucianism and Taoism. Within Buddhism itself, Avalokiteśvara, a Bodhisattva who is believed to have made a great vow to assist sentient beings in times of difficulty and postpone his Buddhahood until he has assisted every sentient being in achieving nirvana, experienced a long process of change. One of the striking changes in the image of Avalokiteśvara in China is the shifting of the gender of Avalokiteśvara. The great Sui-Tang dynasties patronized Buddhism as a state cult during the more significant portion of their reign. Many scholars like Wu Yan, Jiao Jie, Sun Xiushen, Cui Feng, etc. observed that the Sui-Tang period was the turning point for the gender transformation of Kuan-yin.[1] In this paper, I am going to do a comparative study on the representations of Avalokiteśvara from both India and China broadly from the seventh to tenth centuries, to see how Kuan-yin transformed in China and whether there might be influences from India in the ways that Kuan-yin’s gender is constructed in the iconography.