Eyes of Sun, Moon and Stars: The Birth of Gods from Guanyin
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། In his eyes, the sun and moon reside; from his forehead emanates the Great Brahma; from his shoulders, the Brahma King; from his heart, the Narayana; from his two fangs, the goddess of eloquence; from his mouth, the various winds; from his feet, the earth; and from his belly, the water deity. Thus did the Buddha declare that all these gods arose from the body of Avalokiteshvara.
From the sutra titled "The Buddha Speaking on the Great Vehicle Mahavaipulya Sutra" (ཟ་མ་ཏོག་བཀོད་པ།) comes the passage: "The body of Avalokiteshvara appears as all these heavenly beings." The Tibetan rendition of this text was produced jointly by local scholars and scholars from South Asia, whereas the Chinese version was rendered during the Song Dynasty by the North Indian monk Tienxi Zai.
From the Philadelphia Museum of Art Collection in Kathmandu, dated to the 17th century, comes a tale of a mysterious sacred object that fell from heaven. Zanpu, who came into possession of it without grasping its significance, installed it within the holy Yumbulagang Palace, where he offered daily reverence. This set narrative—of a Buddhist relic arriving in Tibet—is now widely recognized and is considered a harbinger of Buddhism's later introduction to Tubo.
Previous classical scholars of Tibet have long employed a Buddhist historical perspective centered on the "Guanyin belief." This viewpoint spans from the ancestral holy monkey's and the rakshasi's teachings, through Trisong Detsen—the twenty-eighth Tubo ruler who received the aforementioned "mysterious sacred object"—to the appearance of Songtsen Gampo, regarded as the incarnation of Guanyin Bodhisattva.
Even today, despite the fact that the majority's choice does not inevitably obscure the truth, precise accounts of the "mystical sacred objects" can still be found within faith. Two scholars, who are identified by different names in the literature, began their journey from Kashmir, in the heart of Central Asia, and ultimately reached the kingdom's center. Among the numerous Buddhist relics they transported was a disputed text, the "Sutra of the King of Pristine Adornments" (कारण्डव्यूह सूत्र; ཟ་མ་ཏོག་བཀོད་པ་).
A Mahayana sutra that took shape around the 4th to 5th centuries AD, the King of Pristine Adornments Sutra—often referred to simply as the Sutra—is the source of Avalokiteshvara's widely known six-syllable mantra.
The Tibetan rendering of this scripture now in circulation was, in fact, created between 815 and 824 (but no later than 820) by two South Asian scholars and a local translator named Yeshe De, even though most Tibetan writings credit Thumi Sambhota—the linguist and translator from Songtsen Gampo’s reign—with making the initial translation. Since that version retained the distinctive grammar of ancient Tibetan in its wording, it has never been revised or translated anew.
The Tibetan version contains numerous ambiguous or inaccurate renderings for terms such as animals, plants, and holy sites, owing to the scripture's portrayal of South Asian customs and landscapes. Early 19th century, Nepal region, collection of the Rubin Museum; 18th century, private collection; mid-19th century, Gelug school in Tibet, collection of the Rubin Museum.
Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva speaks to Great King Vasudhara and all beings about the unsurpassed merits of the Buddha and himself within the “Treasure King Sutra.” This takes place alongside the request by Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva and Akasagarbha Bodhisattva to the Buddha for teachings on the merits of Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva and the Six Syllable Mantra.
The Buddha’s account of various gods being born from Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva’s body makes his extraordinary standing and many works especially clear, and those are set forth through a range of Buddhist symbols and repeated questioning.
The 'Treasure King Sutra' describes nine deities arising from the Bodhisattva's body. The eyes give rise to the Sun God and Moon God, the forehead to Shiva, the shoulders to Brahma, the heart to Vishnu, the teeth to Saraswati, and the mouth, feet, and abdomen respectively produce the Wind God, Earth God, and Water God.
In the "Treasure King Sutra", Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva serves not only as a follower of the Buddha and an envoy of Amitabha Buddha's Pure Land but also functions as a repository for the native deities of South Asia.
Since the 15th century, the Buddhist community in Kathmandu, Nepal, has been developing both the texts and representations of the "Arya Avalokiteshvara Sutra." These Nepalese scriptures have never been translated into Tibetan; nevertheless, the iconographic model of the "Sacred Red Avalokiteshvara" was adopted beyond the Himalayas, especially in the Gelugpa tradition. In such depictions, Avalokiteshvara has one face, two arms, and a red body.
This image is referred to by the Buddhist community in Kathmandu, also called Yambu City, as the "Supreme Mantra Body" or the "Supreme Destroyer of the Three Poisons." The first name underscores the six-syllable mantra's supreme position, whereas the second emphasizes Avalokiteshvara's saving power.
In certain depictions from Kathmandu, Red Avalokiteshvara is shown with a thousand arms and a thousand faces, a form reminiscent of South Asian deities. In these images, the number of deities that emerge from the Bodhisattva's body is twice that recorded in the scriptures. This numerical increase points to two central currents in the Buddhist history of Nepal: the revival of Shakyamuni's eminence and the engagement with rival non-Buddhist traditions.
The deities of South Asia were seen by many Nepalese residing or employed in Tibet as merely manifestations of the supreme Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva. These individuals carried into the region imagery that embodied native Buddhist concepts. Furthermore, the "worship of Avalokiteshvara" within the "Sutras of the Jewel King" encompasses fundamental beliefs that closely connect with popular devotion.
These beliefs are found both in the "Sacred Red Avalokiteshvara giving birth to deities" on this mountainside and in the "Complete Collection of Ma Ni" from the "Sutras of the Jewel King," a work rooted in the "Ma Ni" (མ་ཎི་བཀའ་འབུམ་). They also appear in the unceasing recitation of the six-syllable mantra: Hail to the supreme one who holds the precious lotus flower! The divine presence is made manifest through Guanyin of the Thousand Hands and Eyes. This piece is translated from the blog of Sorang Wangqing.