| Name ▲▼ | Origin ▲▼ | Description ▲▼ |
|---|---|---|
| Goddess name "AVALOKITESVARA (merciful lord)" | Buddhist / India | Bodhisattva or buddhadesignate. One of the most important deities of the Mahayana sect of Buddhism. In Lamaism he is the tutelary god of Tibet. He equates with VIS NU in Hinduism and bears links with PADMAPANI. In cosmic mythology he is a creator deity. Color: white or red. Attributes: blue lotus, image of Amitabha (topmost pyramidal head), lotus, rosary, sword and water jar. NOTE: in Chinese Buddhism he is represented by the goddess Kuan-Tin, and in Japanese by KWANNON.... |
"Akasagarbha" | Buddhist / India | Bodhisattva one of the eight great bodhisattvas. His name can be translated as "boundless space treasury" or "void store" as his wisdom is said to be boundless as space itself. He is sometimes known as the twin brother of the "earth store" bodhisattva Ksitigarbha. In Japan he is known as Kokuzo. Buddhist / India |
| Spirit name "Akasagarbha (essence of tbe sky)" | Buddhist / Mahayana / / Lamaist / Tibet | Astral god. One of the BODHISATTVAS or spiritual meditation buddhas. He lives in the womb of the sky. Color: green. Attributes: Book, jewel, lotus and Sun disc. Also Khagarbha. In Japanese Buddhism this deity becomes the god Kokuzo.... |
"Amitabha" | Buddhist / India | A celestial buddha described in the scriptures of the Mahayana school of Buddhism. According to these scriptures, Amitabha possesses infinite merits resulting from good deeds over countless past lives as a bodhisattva named Dharmakara. Buddhist / India |
| Deities name "Arapacana" | Buddhist | God. A BODHISATTVA or spiritual meditation buddha. Originally a DHARANI of MANJUSRI who became deified. Accompanied by four minor deities. Also a collective name for the five buddhas. Color: yellow or red. Attributes: standing wearing a monkish garment and carrying Book and sword.... |
| Goddess name "Bhrkuti-Tara (she who frowns)" | Buddhist - Lamaist / Tibet | Mother goddess. In Lamaism particularly, a cruel form of TARA, the mother of the BUDDHA. The so-called yellow Tara. An emanation of AMITABHA. Also identified as a female BODHISATTVA or buddha-designate. Color: yellow. Attribute: image of Amitabha, lotus, rosary, staff, trident and water jar. Threeeyed. Also JANGULI and VAJRATARA.... |
"Bhumi" | India | The ten stages a Bodhisattva advances through in the path to become a Buddha. India |
| Deities name "Bhumi (the earth on which all things are formed)" | Buddhist / Varyana | Collective name for a group of deities. Twelve personifications of the spiritual spheres through which a BODHISATTVA or buddha-designate påśśes in his quest for perfection of knowledge. Common attribute: a staff.... |
"Bodhisattva (one whose essence is perfect knowledge)" | Buddhist / northern India, Tibet, China / Japan | Generic title for a buddha-designate. Any one of the earlier stages of a future buddha. Depicted wearing regal dress and trappings, including a crown. The most significant include AVALOKITESVARA, MAITREYA and MANJUSRI.... |
| Goddess name "Cunda" | Buddhist / eastern Bengal / Tibet | Goddess. An emanation of Vajrasattva or Vairocana. A female BODHISATTVA or buddha-designate. Also seen separately as a deification of literature, one of a group of twelve DHARANIS. She may stand upon a man. Color: white or green. Very large variety of attributes. Also Aryacunda.... |
"Da-Shi-Zhi" | Buddhist / China | One of Amitabha Buddha's two great female Bodhisattva companions in the Pure Land. Buddhist / China |
"Da-Shi-Zhi Buddhism" | China | A female Bodhisattva |
| God name "Gaganaganja (treasury of ether)" | Buddhist | God. One of a group of BODHISATTVAS (buddha-designates). Color: yellow, red or gold. Attributes: blue lotus, Book, jewel, lotus and wishing tree in a vase.... |
| God name "Ghantaaani (bell in hand)" | Buddhist / Mahayana | God. One of the group of dhyanibodhisattva (meditation BUDDHAS). An emanation of Vajrasattva. Color: white. Attribute: a bell.... |
| God name "Hevajira" | Buddhist / Mahayana | God. A BODHISATTVA (buddha-designate) and an emanation of AKSOBHYA. The Tantric form of HERUKA and the Buddhist equivalent of the Hindu god Siva Nataraja. His SAKTI is NAIRAMATA or VAJRAVARAHI and he may appear dominating the four MARAS (the Hindu gods BRAHMA, VISNU, SIVA and INDRA). Color: blue. Attributes: bell, bow, hook, image of Aksobhya on crown, jewel, lotus, prayer wheel, wine glåśś. He holds a skull in each hand and an åśśortment of other weapons. Threeor eightheaded, from two to sixteen arms and two or four legs; three-eyed.... |
"Ilkwang" | Korea | The Bodhisattva of Sunlight. Korea |
| God name "Jalinprabha (light of the sun)" | Buddhist | God. A BODHISATTVA or buddhadesignate. Color: red. Attributes: staff, Sun disc and sword. Also Suryaprabha.... |
| Deity name "Jambhala" | Buddhist | Embodies the Wealth deity aspect of all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas of past, present and future, and grants longevity and prosperity in daily life. Buddhist |
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.
