Eleven Headed Avalokitesvara Chenresigs,
Kuan-yin or Kannon Bodhisattva: Its Origin and Iconography/Tove
E. Neville. 1999, xviii, 122 p., 63 plates, $69.
ISBN 81-215-0457-5.Eleven Headed Avalokitesvara Chenresigs,
Kuan-yin or Kannon Bodhisattva: Its Origin and Iconography/Tove
E. Neville. 1999, xviii, 122 p., 63 plates, $69.
ISBN 81-215-0457-5.
Contents: Preface. I. Introduction: 1. General description. 2. Criterion for this study of the eleven-headed Avalokitesvara. 3. Two head styles: vertical and Pyramidal. II. The Origins of Eleven-Headed Avalokitesvara: 1. Some suggested origins. 2. Origins and development based on forms and powers. 3. Origin based on name. 4. Origin implied in scriptural evidence and images. 5. Origin based on Hindu deities and their iconography. 6. Origin based on the development of Avalokitesvara images. 7. Origin seen in rock-cut Litanies in India. 8. Emanation theory from Litany as origin for eleven-headed Avalokitesvara. III. Iconography of Eleven-Headed Avalokitesvara: Examples from India, Cambodia, Nepal and Tibet: 1. Eleven-headed Avalokitesvara of India. 2. Eleven-headed Avalokitesvara of Cambodia. 3. Eleven-headed Avalokitesvara of Nepal. 4. Eleven-headed Avalokitesvara of Tibet. IV. Background for the Eleven-Headed Kuan-Yin in China: 1. Early Buddhist images in China: historical and literary evidence. 2. Buddhism in North China and the interchange of Buddhist art styles in north and south, as pertaining to the eleven-headed Kuan-yin. 3. Chinese cave temples: some precursors and stylistic elements including early many-headed images, seen as influences on the eleven-headed Kuan-yin. 4. Cave sculpture: Yun-Kang and lung-men. V. Iconography of Eleven-Headed Avalokitesvara as Kuan-Yin in China, Kuan Eum in Korea and Kannon in Japan: 1. Eleven-headed Kuan-yin of China. 2. Eleven-headed Kwan Eum of Korea. 3. Eleven-headed Kannon of Japan. VI. Conclusion. Appendix. Ten powers of the Litany as origin for eleven-headed Avalokitesvara. Bibliography. Index.
"The Eleven-Headed Avalokitesvara is a study of the many origins that may have played a part in arriving at this number of heads, based on forms and powers: male and female forms: origins based on name; in scriptural evidence and images, as well as Hindu deities, and finally origin seen in rock-cut litanies in caves of India.
"Manifold as the source are, they led to consideration of this Bodhisattva as the highest form of compassion in the widest sense of the word, the savior for humanity of eight to ten dreads, which assail and defeat humankind, especially for exposed travelers, be they pilgrims going to visit and pray at Buddhist shrines, or monks seeking new temples or to find new masters to teach them.
"This essay weaves together a panorama in South Asia, moving up to Central Asian and Chinese cultures who contributed their own examples from caves in China (Tun Huang) that also held depositories of paintings brought back to modern cultures for study in Paris and London; long scrolls such as the Yunan Tali Kingdom's treasure from the late Sung period, all told tales of Buddhist iconography and styles that most often harked back to earlier Indian models.
"Korea found influence from China and Japan had the eleven-headed in metal and also of lacquer and wood in splendid examples from seventh and eighth centuries on. Still, most astounding is a theory weaving the thread back to the Indian cave litanies, showing how the Bodhisattva as savior caused in practice of art to furnish the model for how the ten scenes of dreads plus the great Avalokitesvara's own face led to an eleven-headed "giants" seen in Indian Gupta styles." (jacket)
[Tove E. Neville is a Buddhist Scholar who has spent nine years in re
search of Eleven Headed Avalokitesvara in Asia.]