In the city of Yangbu, the Red Guanyin Temple|Key moments about the Himalayas (6).

July 12, 2024

བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ཀྱིས་བཀའ་སྩལ་པ།

མིག་ལས་ནི་ཉི་མ་དང་ཟླ་བ་བྱུང།

དཔྲལ་བ་ལས་ནི་དབང་ཕྱུག་ཆེན་པོ།

ཕྲག་པ་ལས་ནི་ཚངས་པ། སྙིང་ལས་ནི་མཐུ་བོ་ཆེ།

མཆེ་བ་གཉིས་ལས་ནི་ལྷ་མོ་དབྱངས་ཅན།

ཁ་ནས་ནི་རླུང་རྣམས་བྱུང། རྐང་པ་ལས་ནི་ས།

ལྟོ་བ་ལས་ནི་ཆུའི་ལྷ་བྱུང་སྟེ།

སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་ཀྱི་དབང་པོའི་ལུས་ལས་ལྷ་དེ་དག་བྱུང་བ།

The Buddha said, "The Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara has the sun and moon in his eyes, the Great Brahma in his forehead, the Brahma King in his shoulders, the Narayana in his heart, the Great Eloquence in his teeth, the Wind God in his mouth, the Earth God in his feet, and the Water God in his abdomen.

The body of Avalokiteshvara appears as all these heavenly beings."

Selected from "The Buddha Speaking on the Great Vehicle Mahavaipulya Sutra"

（ཟ་མ་ཏོག་བཀོད་པ།）

The Tibetan version of this scripture was translated by scholars from South Asia and local scholars.The Chinese version of this scripture was translated by the North Indian monk, Tienxi Zai, during the Song Dynasty.

"Creation of the Holy Red Guanyin and Deity Statues"

17th century, Kathmandu, Philadelphia Museum of Art Collection

The mysterious sacred object descended from heaven, and Zanpu obtained it without knowing its meaning, so he placed it in the sacred Yumbulagang Palace and worshipped it daily. Nowadays, people are familiar with the fixed description of the above about the Buddhist sacred object descending to Tibet, which is also seen as a precursor to the introduction of Buddhism to Tubo. From the teachings of the ancestral holy monkey and the rakshasi to the twenty-eighth ruler of Tubo, Trisong Detsen, who received the "mysterious sacred object" mentioned above, and finally the appearance of the incarnation of Guanyin Bodhisattva, Songtsen Gampo; this entire Buddhist history view centered on the "Guanyin belief" has long been used by previous classical scholars of Tibet.

The majority's choice does not necessarily mean that the truth will be obscured; to this day, we can still find accurate descriptions of the "mystical sacred objects" in the midst of faith. Two scholars, referred to by different names in the literature, set out from the heart of Central Asia in Kashmir and eventually traveled to the heart of the kingdom. Among the many Buddhist sacred objects they carried was a controversial scripture known as the "Sutra of the King of Pristine Adornments" (कारण्डव्यूह सूत्र; ཟ་མ་ཏོག་བཀོད་པ་). The King of Pristine Adornments Sutra, or simply the Sutra, is a Mahayana sutra that roughly took shape between the 4th and 5th centuries AD; the widely known six-syllable mantra of Avalokiteshvara originates from this scripture.

Although most Tibetan literature claims that the translator and linguist during the reign of Songtsen Gampo, Thumi Sambhota, was the first to translate this scripture, the Tibetan translation we have today was actually completed by two scholars from South Asia and a local translator named Yeshe De between the years 815 and 824 (but no later than 820). As a classic that preserved the unique grammar of ancient Tibetan during translation, it has never been re-translated or revised since. Due to the descriptions of South Asian customs and landscapes in the scripture, there are many obscure or incorrect translations in the Tibetan version when it comes to concepts such as animals, plants, and sacred sites.

"The Birth of the Gods at the Holy Red Guanyin Temple"

Early 19th century, Nepal region, collection of the Rubin Museum

Partial image: Nepalese man and woman making an offering

"The Thousand-Handed, Thousand-Faced Holy Red Guanyin Births the Gods"

18th century, private collection

"Birth of the Gods at the Holy Red Guanyin Temple"

Mid-19th century, Gelug school in Tibet, collection of Rubin Museum.

The deceased holding a conch shell (as seen in the previous "The Shadow of the Deceased Emerges into the Picture").

In the "Treasure King Sutra", besides Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva and Akasagarbha Bodhisattva praying to the Buddha for teachings on the merits of Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva and the Six Syllable Mantra, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva also explains the unsurpassed merits of the Buddha and himself to the Great King Vasudhara and all beings. Through numerous inquiries and Buddhist symbols, the unique status and numerous deeds of Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva are structured, especially evident in the description by the Buddha to beings of various gods being born from Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva's body. In the "Treasure King Sutra", there are nine deities born from the body of the Bodhisattva: the Sun God and Moon God are born from the eyes, Shiva is born from the forehead, Brahma is born from the shoulders, Vishnu is born from the heart, Saraswati is born from the teeth, and the Wind God, Earth God, and Water God are born respectively from the mouth, feet, and abdomen of the Bodhisattva. In the "Treasure King Sutra", Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva is not only depicted as a disciple of the Buddha and a messenger of the Pure Land of Amitabha Buddha, but is also seen as a vessel containing the indigenous gods of South Asia.

Since the 15th century, the Buddhist community in Kathmandu, Nepal, has been expanding the text and imagery of the "Arya Avalokiteshvara Sutra." These religious texts from the Nepalese region have never been translated into Tibetan, but the image paradigm of the "Sacred Red Avalokiteshvara" has been adopted on the other side of the Himalayas (especially in the Gelugpa tradition). In the images, Avalokiteshvara is depicted as having one face and two arms, with a red complexion. The Buddhist community in Kathmandu (also known as Yambu City) refers to this image as the "Supreme Mantra Body" or the "Supreme Destroyer of the Three Poisons." The former emphasizes the supreme status of the six-syllable mantra, while the latter highlights the salvific nature of Avalokiteshvara. It is important to note that in some images originating from Kathmandu, the Red Avalokiteshvara also has a thousand-arm, thousand-face posture similar to South Asian deities, and the number of divine beings born from the Bodhisattva's body is twice as many as described in the texts.

The increase in the number of birth deities reflects the two main threads of the history of Buddhist development in the region of Nepal: the return to the glory of Shakyamuni and the confrontation with other non-Buddhist religions. Many Nepalese people living or working in Tibet brought images symbolizing indigenous Buddhist thought to the region. They always believed that the deities of South Asia were nothing more than manifestations of the supreme Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, and the "worship of Avalokiteshvara" in the scripture of the "Sutras of the Jewel King" contains core beliefs that truly resonate with popular beliefs. Such beliefs not only exist in the "Sacred Red Avalokiteshvara giving birth to deities" on this side of the mountain, but also in the "Complete Collection of Ma Ni" from the "Sutras of the Jewel King" originating from the "Ma Ni" (མ་ཎི་བཀའ་འབུམ་) and the continuous recitation of the six-syllable mantra: Hail to the supreme one who holds the precious lotus flower!

Partial diagram: Moon God - Mercury - Shiva - Brahma - Sun God