[Buddha-l] Is Guanyin Catholic?

[Jon Weaver]

Twenty years ago, I read a book (exact title forgotten) about Chinese  river & spring  goddesses and their iconography fusing with  the incoming bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara to become Guanyin. For  example, Guanyin is depicted pouring out the waters of mercy from a  vessel, but Avalokiteshvara is not shown with a vessel as I recall. She  is also shown holding a pearl of immortality, which is an attribute of  water dragons. Guanyin's clothes flow like the garments of cloud  maidens and water spirits. 
  
  I also wonder whether Guanyin is definitively female or rather  ambiguous. I remember a student of mine in Taiwan embarrassingly trying  to explain that Guanyin was not female or male, no one was really sure.  Of course, Western languages don't allow for gender-ambiguous pronouns.  
  
  With metta, Jon Weaver
  
 		
---------------------------------
Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+ countries) for 2¢/min or less.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.swcp.com/mailman/private/buddha-l/attachments/20060929/f46213e8/attachment.html