The goddess of mercy How Kuan-yin became a Chinese deity Archived article from Oct 12, 2001 By Amy Vames   More than a half century ago, at the close of World War II, Chün-fang Yü stood on the banks of the Yangtze River in the predawn hours waiting to board a boat that would take her family home to northern China. Suddenly, her grandmother insisted the boat was unsafe, that the goddess Kuan-yin was standing in the middle of the river and gesturing with her right hand to stay away. After some debate, the family stayed on the dock. The boat moved out of the harbor, hit a Japanese mine and sank. Professor Chün-fang Yü has written a book about the Chinese goddess Kuan-yin, who originated as the Indian god Avalokite´svara. Photo by Alan Goldsmith Decades later, that aborted journey would send Professor Yü, chair of the religion department, on a 15-year quest of her own to understand the goddess that dominated her grandmother's life. The result is her new book, "Kuan-yin: The Chinese Transformation of Avalokite´svara" (Columbia University Press). While growing up in China during the chaotic 1940s, Yü's primary caretaker was her maternal grandmother. Yü's mother was a teacher, and while she helped homeschool Yü and her siblings, Yü's grandmother provided much of her early education. "In some ways, I was closer to my grandmother than to my mother," Yü says. "She was a very pious Buddhist, and she had an amazing memory of everything she heard." She would often regale Yü and her younger brother and sister with wondrous and frightening stories of gods, goddesses, ghosts and the underworld, with special attention to the goddess that commanded her daily devotion -- Kuan-yin. Although Yü received a master's degree in English literature from Smith College, the stories about Kuan-yin that her grandmother passed on spurred her to change her field to religion when she enrolled in Columbia University's doctoral program. While researching a book several years ago on religious pilgrimages in China, Yü realized that the deity that had been so much a part of her youth had been almost completely ignored by other Chinese Buddhist scholars. So Yü set out to chronicle the history of this much-beloved goddess. Yü was most interested in finding out how Kuan-yin, who started out as a male Buddhist deity in India, became the most popular deity in China, switching genders in the process. Kuan-yin originated as the bodhisattva Avalokite´svara in India, probably between the second and fifth centuries. A bodhisattva is one who wishes to become enlightened and, eventually, a Buddha. Like all buddhas and bodhisattvas, Avalokite´svara was worshiped for his mercy and compassion. He is sometimes depicted as multiheaded and multiarmed, but always male or asexual, and remains that way today in India, Southeast Asia and Tibet. (In fact, the Tibetans regard the Dalai Lama as his incarnation.) Chinese Buddhists adopted the deity around the third century as Kuan-yin. The name Kuan-yin is the Chinese translation of Avalokite´svara, which in Sanskrit means, "He who perceives the sounds of the world." While Kuan-yin originally was also male, "very gradually, Kuan-yin became more androgynous," Yü says. "From the 10th century, she became more feminine. In the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) she becomes a goddess." As Yü explains in her book, "Kuan-yin had become not only completely Chinese but also the most beloved 'Goddess of Mercy,' a nickname coined by the Jesuit missionaries who were much impressed by the similarities between her iconography and that of the Madonna." Yü says that although scholars have long known that the Chinese transformed Avalokite´svara into Kuan-yin, her research identifies how this process occurred, when the Chinese constructions of Kuan-yin began, why they came about and through what media. Yü argues that to understand Kuan-yin's transformation into a female deity, one must understand the cultures of monastic Buddhism and Confucianism, both of which are patriarchal and geared toward male elites and their education. Kuan-yin's gender switch, she believes, was in response to the needs of both men and women worshipers "for a more tender, emotional side to Confucianism and Buddhism." The cult of Kuan-yin is the most popular cult in China. (Yü explains in her book that she uses the term "cult" in its original sense -- devout worship or reverential homage -- rather than the negative connotation of a group of worshipers controlled by a charismatic leader.) But how and why did Kuan-yin become so popular? Yü believes that Kuan-yin's popularity stems from the fact that she is regarded as the universal savior by all Chinese, male and female, monastic and lay, the elites and the masses. "The Lotus Sutra says that no matter who invokes her name or for whatever trouble they seek her help, she will grant your wishes," Yü says. Furthermore, there is no requirement for a particular "moral fiber," and devotees need not meditate or follow a special diet. "It's unconditional love," Yü notes. Like the Jesuits, scholars have compared Kuan-yin to the Virgin Mary of Christianity: both are worshiped by all classes, by men and women alike, and by monastic and lay people, and both are symbols of boundless compassion. But Yü notes several differences: Kuan-yin is a deity in her own right, while Mary is worshiped primarily because she is Jesus' mother. And, interestingly, Kuan-yin was never a mother, although she is the epitome of motherliness and is invoked by couples wishing to have a child. Yü's next book project also has a feminist slant: It's on contemporary Buddhist nuns in Taiwan, 80 percent of whom have college degrees. Yü is focusing on how these nuns have played a major role in reviving Buddhism in Taiwan and why the religion is attracting so many educated and socially active women.

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