Avalokiteshvara 觀世音菩薩

Avalokiteshvara courtesy of Lama Tsondru Sangpo

Avalokiteshvara (Skt. Avalokiteśvara; Tib. སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་, Chenrezik; Wyl. spyan ras gzigs or spyan ras gzigs dbang phyug) is said to be the essence of the speech of all the buddhas and incarnation of their compassion. As one of the Eight Great Close Sons, he is usually depicted as white in colour and holding a lotus. He is of special importance to Tibetans, so much so that he is sometimes described as the patron deity of Tibet. Among his emanations are King Songtsen Gampo — who is credited with authoring the Mani Kabum, a cycle of teachings and practices dedicated to the deity — as well as the lineages of Dalai Lamas and Karmapas.

Forms

Masculine Forms

One Face and Two Arms

Lokanatha (Tib. འཇིག་རྟེན་མགོན་པོ་, Wyl. 'jig rten mgon po)
Khasarpana or Khasarpani
Padmanarteshvara (Tib. པདྨ་གར་གྱི་དབང་ཕྱུག་, Wyl. padma gar gyi dbang phyug)
Nilakhanta
Padmapani
Simhanada (Tib. སེང་གེ་ང་རོ་, Wyl. seng ge nga ro)
Tailokyavashamkara
Vajradharma (Tib. རྡོ་རྗེ་ཆོས་, Wyl. rdo rje chos)

One Face and Four Arms

Chaturbhuja
Jinasagara (Tib. རྒྱལ་བ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wyl. rgyal ba rgya mtsho)
Shadakshrilokeshvara (Tib. སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་ཕྱག་བཞི་པ་, Wyl. spyan ras gzigs phyag bzhi pa)
Rakta Lokeshvara

One Face and Eight Arms

Amoghapasha (Tib. དོན་ཤགས་, Wyl. don shags)

Three Faces

Chintachakra

Eleven Faces

Ekadashamukha (Tib. བཅུ་གཅིག་ཞལ་, Wyl. bcu gcig zhal)
Sahasrabhujalokeshvara (Tib. ཕྱག་སྟོང་ཞལ་བཅུ་གཅིག་, Wyl. phyag stong zhal bcu gcig)
Vajragarbha

Feminine Forms

Guanyin (Chinese)/Kannon(Japanese)

Internal Links

External Links

Avalokiteshvara outline page at Himalayan Art Resources

Visualization and Recitation of the Six Syllable Mantra of Chenresig by Ju Mipham