Compassion

慈悲

The vow is not to be free alone.

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Purpose II of nine

Held for someone else

Avalokiteshvara heard the world and did not look away. Tara rose from his tear and stepped down before the lotus had closed. Compassion in this tradition is a direction rather than a mood, and the iconography keeps saying so in the same three ways: an open palm, a foot already lowered, a thousand arms inside one halo.

**Green Tara, one foot already lowered from the lotus.** *Green Tara · 52 × 74 cm · Mineral pigment and 24k gold*

A direction, not a feeling

Compassion here is not sympathy. It is a vow, and the vow has a shape: not to be free alone. Avalokiteshvara is the figure who heard the suffering of the world and did not look away, and Tara is said to have risen from a tear he shed while doing it. Both are painted caught mid-movement rather than at rest, because the whole point of the iconography is that the help is already on its way.

What to look for

The vocabulary repeats across every painting in this purpose. An open right palm turned outward is the gesture of granting, and it is always the hand nearest the viewer. A foot lowered from the lotus seat means the figure has not stayed seated. And the thousand arms of the largest Avalokiteshvara form are drawn as a halo of hands with an eye in each palm — a thousand ways to see a difficulty, and a thousand hands to meet it.

Three from this purpose

Catalogue item · JPTK-022 Thangka Painting Catalogue preview

千手观音 · JPTK-003 Thangka Painting Catalogue preview

四臂观音 · JPTK-031 Thangka Painting Catalogue preview

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Given, rather than kept

Traditionally more of these leave a house than stay in it. The customary occasions are a birth, a mother, a friend under strain, someone setting out on something difficult. The small formats exist largely because of that: a painting meant to be handed over has to be able to travel.

Customarily given rather than kept — for a mother, for someone under strain, for a friend setting out on something difficult.

The figures · 6 figures

Green Tara绿度母

Green Tara, the bodhisattva of swift compassion

Her body is green. She sits on a lotus with the left leg folded in and the right leg extended onto a small lotus, as though about to rise. The right hand rests palm outward on the knee in the gesture of giving. The left holds the stem of a blue utpala flower that opens at her shoulder.

In the tradition she is invoked for protection on journeys and for the removal of fear and obstacles. She is customarily given to travellers, and to anyone setting out on something difficult.

See Green Tara pieces

Thousand-armed Avalokiteshvara千手观音

Thousand-armed Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion

He stands white-bodied on a lotus. Eleven heads rise in tiers: nine peaceful, a wrathful dark one above them, and the red head of Amitabha at the top. A thousand arms fan out behind him like a halo, an eye in each palm. Two of the eight principal arms join at the heart around a jewel; the others hold a lotus, a mala, a bow and a wheel.

He is traditionally associated with compassion and with the mantra om mani padme hum. The eleven-headed form is the focus of Nyungne, a fasting retreat kept over two days at a time.

See Thousand-armed Avalokiteshvara pieces

Four-armed Avalokiteshvara四臂观音

Four-armed Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion

He is white, seated in full vajra posture on a lotus and moon disc. The two central hands are joined at the heart around a wish-fulfilling jewel. The upper right hand holds a crystal rosary, the upper left a white lotus that opens at shoulder height. An antelope skin lies over his left shoulder, and he wears the silks and jewellery of a bodhisattva.

In Tibetan tradition he is the figure of compassion and the source of the six-syllable mantra om mani padme hum. His image is customarily kept by people who take that mantra as a daily practice.

See Four-armed Avalokiteshvara pieces

Avalokiteshvara南海观音

Avalokiteshvara as Guanyin of the South Sea

In this East Asian form the bodhisattva appears white-robed, standing or seated on a lotus above waves, calm and unarmed. The right hand holds a willow sprig and the left a vase of sweet dew, or both hands rest folded. A small crown carries the seated figure of Amitabha. The boy Sudhana and the dragon king's daughter often attend at either side.

The South Sea form is associated with Mount Putuo off the Zhejiang coast, the island identified in Chinese tradition with Avalokiteshvara's pure land. She is customarily invoked for compassion and for the safety of those at sea.

See Avalokiteshvara pieces

Avalokiteshvara Mandala四臂观音曼陀罗

A mandala of four-armed Avalokiteshvara, his palace seen from above

The composition is read from the centre outward. A square palace with four gates, one to each direction, each gate topped by a stepped portico, sits inside a circle. Four-armed Avalokiteshvara occupies the centre: white, seated, two hands joined at the heart, the outer pair holding a crystal rosary and a white lotus. Retinue figures fill the quadrants and the gateways.

A mandala is used as a support for visualisation practice and as a diagram of a deity's residence. Avalokiteshvara is traditionally associated with compassion, and this composition is customarily commissioned by practitioners who hold that practice.

See Avalokiteshvara Mandala pieces

Green Tara Mandala绿度母曼陀罗

A mandala with Green Tara at its centre

The composition is a palace seen in plan: a square with four T-shaped gates at the cardinal points, set inside concentric rings of lotus petals, vajras and flame. Green Tara sits at the centre on a lotus and moon disc, green-skinned, her right leg extended, her right hand open in the gift-giving gesture and a blue utpala flower at her left shoulder. Attendant Taras fill the quarters around her.

Tara mandalas are used as supports for visualisation. In the tradition Tara is invoked for the removal of fear and of obstacles, and such compositions are customarily commissioned for a shrine or a retreat room.

See Green Tara Mandala pieces

In the collection