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Eleven-Headed, Thousand-Armed Bodhisattva of Compassion (Avalokiteshvara)
c. 1500
- Medium
- Gum tempera and ink on cotton
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Overall: 94.6 x 69.2 cm (37 1/4 x 27 1/4 in.)
- Culture
- Western Tibet
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Credit line
- Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
One thousand arms surround the central figure like a radiating halo. Each hand has an eye in the palm to see the suffering of all beings, generating the sense of compassion that this figure embodies. The special form of the central image of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara derives from the mystic vision of a nun named Gelongma Palmo, who was born a Kashmiri princess, but prayed for leprosy to avoid having to marry and became an accomplished nun. While meditating in a cave, she achieved this vision of 11-headed, 1,000-armed Avalokiteshvara, who cured her leprosy and guided her on the path to enlightenment.
