[Buddha-l] Is Guanyin Catholic?

[jkirk]

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
====================
Sounds like a very interesting book-------if you think of the title please 
post.
In addition re Guanyin, 'her' icons do not show a womanly figure with 
breasts,
an attribute that is not missing from many other female deities.
Joanna