Note 25 — Chapter XVI · ON TO MATHURÂ OR MUTTRA. CONDITION AND CUSTOMS OF CENTRAL INDIA; OF THE MONKS, VIHÂRAS, AND MONASTERIES.

Kwan-she-yin and the dogmas about him or her are as great a mystery as Mañjuśrî. The Chinese name is a mistranslation of the Sanskrit name Avalokiteśvara, ‘On-looking Sovereign,’ or even ‘On-looking Self-Existent,’ and means ‘Regarding or Looking on the sounds of the world,’ = ‘Hearer of Prayer.’ Originally, and still in Thibet, Avalokiteśvara had only male attributes, but in China and Japan (Kwannon), this deity (such popularly she is) is represented as a woman, ‘Kwan-yin, the greatly gentle, with a thousand arms and a thousand eyes;’ and has her principal seat in the island of Pʽoo-tʽoo, on the China coast, which is a regular place of pilgrimage. To the worshippers of whom Fâ-hien speaks, Kwan-she-yin would only be Avalokiteśvara. How he was converted into the ‘goddess of mercy,’ and her worship took the place which it now has in China, is a difficult inquiry, which would take much time and space, and not be brought after all, so far as I see, to a satisfactory conclusion. See Eitel’s Handbook, pp. 18–20, and his Three Lectures on Buddhism (third edition), pp. 124–131. I was talking on the subject once with an intelligent Chinese gentleman, when he remarked, ‘Have you not much the same thing in Europe in the worship of Mary?’