Water-Moon Guanyin

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Water-Moon Guanyin, Shanghai Museum

File:Chinese - Seated Guanyin (Kuan-yin) Bodhisattva - Walters 25256.jpg

Water-Moon Guanyin, Walters Art Museum

Water-Moon Guanyin (C. Shuiyue Guanyin 水月觀音). A form of Avalokiteśvara (Guanyin) found in East Asian Buddhism. In this form, the bodhisattva is dressed in the garb of an Indian prince, and he is seated on a craggy rock, which is said to represent Potalaka, an island in the Indian southern sea that is Guanyin’s mythical home. He rests in royal-ease posture (lalitāsana) with one armed drapped over a knee, and the other resting on the base on which the bodhisattva is seated. He gazes at the "reflection of the moon in water" (udakacandra), a common metaphor for śūnyatā.

The editors of the Metropolitan Museum of Art state:

After the tenth century, one of the more prominent representations of Avalokiteshvara shows the bodhisattva seated with the right knee raised and the left leg crossed before the body. The posture represents the Water Moon manifestation, understood as a depiction of the divinity in his Pure Land, or personal paradise. Known as Mount Potalaka, Avalokiteshvara’s Pure Land was originally thought to be located on an island somewhere south of India. By the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), this mythical paradise had been identified with Mount Putuo, an island off the east coast province of Zhejiang, and had become an important pilgrimage site.

The editors of the Seattle Art Museum state:

Guanyin sits majestically with an arm relaxed on a raised knee and a leg hanging down—this posture is known as lalitasana (royal ease). His craggy rock seat represents Potalaka, an island in the Indian southern sea that is Guanyin’s mythical home. Large wood sculptures of this type were produced between the 10th and 14th centuries in northern China. [...] he wears the robes and ornaments of an Indian prince, including a tiara, bracelets, a necklace, and a shawl around his bare chest. His hair is tied up into a chignon (a knot or coil); some falls down loosely around the shoulders. In the West, this male deity’s calm and gentle demeanor is often perceived as feminine, and indeed Guanyin also manifested in various female forms in China.

Linda Chang (2025) states:

The form of Water-Moon Guanyin, also known as “Auspicious Water Guanyin” or “Auspicious Water Bodhisattva,” is one of the most beloved among the thirty-three manifestations of Guanyin in Chinese Buddhist tradition.

The name "Water-Moon" indicates that Guanyin is gazing at a "reflection of the moon in the water" (udakacandra); this is a common metaphor for śūnyatā ("emptiness").

The Nelson Atkins Musuem of Art labels this form as "Guanyin of the Southern Sea".

This form appears in statues from the Song dynasty. See gallery below.

The posture of this form is similar to that of Cintāmaṇicakra Avalokiteśvara.

Galleries

Related categories at Wikimedia Commons:

• Water-Moon Avalokiteśvara
• Bodhisattva Guanyin, Victoria and Albert Museum
• Seated Guanyin - Walters 25256
• Seated Guanyin (Shanghai)
• Buddhist statues of the Song Dynasty
• Liao Dynasty Avalokitesvara Statue (Nelson-Atkins Museum)

See also:

• Water and Moon (Potala) Guanyin, Cleveland Museum of Art
• Water-Moon Guanyin (Shuiyue Guanyin), Baltimore Museum of Art

Sources

• Yü, Chün-fang (2001), Kuan-yin: The Chinese Transformation of Avalokitesvara, Columbia University Press, JSTOR 10.7312/yu--12028 . Publisher's page