| Name ▲▼ | Origin ▲▼ | Description ▲▼ |
|---|---|---|
"Ksitigarbha" | Buddhist / Mahayana | 'Earth-Womb'. "Name of a Bodhisattva who saves suffering beings in the hell" he aspires to deliver sentient beings wandering astray in the five(or six) paths of mundane existence. Buddhist / Mahayana |
| Goddess name "Ksitigarbha (womb of the earth)" | Buddhist / Mahayana | Goddess. Known exten sively from northern India to China and Japan. One of the group of female BODHISATTVAS or buddha designates. Color: yellow or green. Attrib utes: Book, bowl, jewel, staff and water jar. In China she is recognized as an underworld deity, Di zang. In Japan she becomes a guardian deity of påśśage, Jizo.... |
| Goddess name "Mahamayuri (great daughter of the peaçõçk)" | Buddhist / Mahayana | Goddess. An extremely popular deity and an emanation of AMOGHASIDDHI. A female BODHISATTVA or buddha-designate. Also one of a group of five MAHARAKSAS (protectresses) who are thought to be personifications of amulets or mantras. Color: green, red or yellow. Attributes: alms bowl, arrow, banner, bow, fly whisk, image of Amoghasiddhi on crown, jewel, mendicant, peaçõçk feather, prayer wheel, sword and water jar. Three-eyed and may occasionally appear three or four-headed.... |
| God name "Mahasthama(prapta) (he who has attained great power)" | Buddhist / Mahayana | God. A dhyanibodhisattva who personifies great wisdom. Color: white or yellow. Attributes: lotus, six lotuses and sword. (May have no attributes present.)... |
| Goddess name "Mamaki (greedy)" | Buddhist | Goddess. The SAKTI of RATNASAMBHAVA or AKSOBHYA. Also a BODHISATTVA or future buddha, originating from the blue mantra MAM. Color: yellow or blue. Attributes: cup, flowers, jewel, knife and staff.... |
"Manjughosa" | Buddhist | Speaks from the depths of Enlightened awareness and transforms wrong views into Wisdom. A Buddhist Bodhisattva |
"Manjusri" | Buddhist | The bodhisattva of keen awareness. Buddhist |
| Goddess name "Marici (shining)" | Buddhist / Mahayana | (1) Astral goddess. An emanation of VAIROCANA and also his female aspect or SAKTI. She is further identified as a buddha-designate or BODHISATTVA. She may also be the mother of SAKYAMUNI (a form of the BUDDHA). Considered by some to be the equal of the Hindu SURYA. She may be depicted in a three-headed form (as the Sakti of HAYAGRIVA), in which case her left head is that of a pig. She rides in a chariot drawn by seven boars. Color: red, yellow or white. Attributes: arrow, bow, fly whisk, horse's head image in the hair, needle, prayer wheel, staff, sword, thread and trident. Three-eyed.(2) Demiurge. Hindu. A product of the creator god BRAHMA.... |
| God name "Mi-Lo Fo" | Chinese Buddhist | God. The local name given to the BODHISATTVA MAITREYA. Like the Indian model he is represented as a rubicund figure. Attributes include roses and a purse.... |
| God name "Natha" | Buddhist / Sri Lanka | Tutelary god. One of four local emanations of the BODHISATTVA AVALOKITESVARA.... |
| God name "Padmapani (with lotus in hand)" | Buddhist | God. A BODHISATTVA or buddhadesignate, and a distinct form of AVALOKITESVARA. Color: white or red. Attributes: Book, image of Amitabha on the crown, knot of hair, lotus, rosary, trident and waterjar. Three-eyed.... |
"Pandara" | Buddhist | The Shakti of Amitabha, and a feminine bodhisattva. Buddhist |
| Goddess name "Pandara" | Buddhist | Goddess. The SAKTI of AMITABHA and a female BODHISATTVA or buddha-designate. She originates from the Tantric syllable PAM. Color: rose. Attributes: blue lotus, cup, knife and prayer wheel.... |
| Goddess name "Parna-Savari (dressed in leaves)" | Buddhist / Mahayana | Goddess. An emanation of AKSOBHYA and BODHISATTVA or buddha-designate. Also one of a group of DHARANIS (deifications of literature). She is particularly recognized in the northwest of India. Her vehicle is GANESA surmounting obstacles. Color: yellow or green. Attributes: arrow, ax, bow, flower, noose, peaçõçk feather, skin and staff. She is depicted as having three eyes and three heads.... |
"Prabhapala" | Buddhist | protector of light. In Buddhism, the name of a bodhisattva. |
| God name "Pratibhanakuta (excellent intelligence)" | Buddhist | God. A BODHISATTVA or buddhadesignate. Color: yellow or red. Attribute: sword on lotus.... |
| Goddess name "Puspa" | Tibet | Goddess of flowers and the natural environment as well as the Bodhisattva of vision and sight. Tibet |
"Quan Yin" | Asian | The bodhisattva of compåśśion as venerated by East Asian Buddhists. |
The sword did not hurt her; on the contrary, it broke into a thousand pieces. Then the prince had her throttled to death and her soul sent to the inferno, but the King of Hell brought her back to life on a lotus blossom in a pond on Mount Putuo on the East Sea outside Hangzhou Bay in Zhejiang Province. Legend has it that her birthday was the nineteenth day of the second lunar month, the date of her achievement of immortality was the nine- teenth day of the sixth lunar month and the date of her attainment of nirvana was the nineteeth day of the ninth lunar month. After regaining her life, she started ridding human beings of their distress, re- storing eyesight to the blind, curing people of their diseases, giving milk to cows, bestowing sons on eunuchs, finding husbands for spinsters, rescuing shipwreck victims, and other acts of benevolence.
Once when Prince Zhuang fell seriously ill, Miao Shan, unmindful of the wrongs her father had clone her, saved him from the jaws of death by gouging out her own eyes and cutting off her own hands and making them into medicinal pills. To com- memorate her and atone for his misdeeds, Prince Zhuang recmitecl all the master craftsmen in his state and asked them to make a statue of Guanyin with quan yan quan stmu (meaning intact eyes and hands). The craftsmen, however, misheard it for qian yan qian shoW' (meaning a thousand eyes and hands). That is why many of the present images of Guanyin in the temples and monasteries are those with a thousand eyes and hands. The Octagonal Arhat Hall in the Xiangguo Temple in Kaifeng was built between 1766 and 1768 in the thirty-first to thirty-third year of the Qianlong reign period of the Qing Dynasty. Covering an area of seven hundred square metres, the architectural complex comprises a hall with covered corridors, a courtyard and a central pavilion--all octagonal in shape. In the pavilion is the statue of a thousand- eye and thousand-hand AvaloMtesvara Bodhisattva, which is seven metres in height and weighing four tons. This gilt statue, with faces and hands in all four directions, making a total of 1,048 hands and 1,048 eyes, was done out of one gingko tree. This implies that she is quick of eye and deft of hand when delivering worldly beings.
