Motherly White-robed Guanyin
Another famous localized form of Guanyin is White-robed Guanyin. White-robed Guanyin began to appear in art, monasteries’ origin stories, miracle tales, and pilgrims' visions starting from the tenth century. Her iconography is often traced to White Tārā, or Paṇḍāravāsinī (in Sanskrit, Paṇḍāravāsinī, meaning “clad in white”). White-robed Guanyin came to be seen as a child-granting deity. The power to grant children is attributed to the Baiyi Dashi Wu Yinxin Tuoluoni Jing白衣大士五印心陀罗尼經 [The Dhāraṇī Sūtra of White-Robed Guanyin's Heart of Five Seals]. The chanting of the dhāraṇī of the White-robed Guanyin was believed to lead to the miraculous arrival of a baby doubly wrapped in white placenta (baiyi zhongbao白衣重包), which indicated the gift from White-robed Guanyin. Miraculous powers of this scripture were reported between the twelfth and the seventeenth centuries.
Literati living in the late Ming gave the cult of the White-robed Guanyin a new boost. Literatus 袁黃Yuan Huang (1533–1606) still had no heir by the age of forty. He started to chant the White-robed Guanyin’s scripture and soon became a father. He compiled a collection of texts to help people in obtaining …show more content…
Putuo. This form of Guanyin has become known as Nanhai Guanyin, a guardian of the South Sea. She enjoyed particular popularity between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries with the association of Putuo Island as the island home of Guanyin. Her unique iconographic characteristics include a devout Buddhist white parrot and two attendants: a filial Buddhist monk Sudhana and the Dragon King’s daughter Longnü龍女who is known as a girl who managed to achieve enlightenment in the Lotus Sūtra. Because of Nanhai Guanyin’s association with the sea, sailors especially revere her and look to her when in need, just like they do with