Domesticating the Dharma: Buddhist Cults and the Hwaom Synthesis in Silla Korea

Chapter Three: The Cult of Avalokiteśvara

62 chapter three The Cult of Aalokiteśara W orship of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara (Kwanseŭm, Kwanŭm) is the most widespread devotional practice of Buddhism in East Asia. Venerated as the goddess of mercy in China and manifest in human form as the Dalai Lama in Tibet, Avalokiteśvara is the most beloved of all Buddhist deities. When the cult of the bodhisattva of compassion was first introduced to Korea, the role of this versatile deity had not yet expanded to its current rich form. The story of Avalokiteśvara’s transformation into the ultimate savior being is indelibly linked to an abundant group of ritual observances that continued to grow during Silla times. Anecdotes and narrative literature imply that, during the seventh century, the participants in the cult of Avalokiteśvara in Silla were principally nobles of true-bone status. By the first half of the eighth century, the conditions were right for ritual practices , spells, and ideas that had spread throughout mainland China in earlier centuries to flourish in Silla with the rise of Hwaŏm Buddhism and infiltrate downward from elite society into the lives of ordinary people. Worship of Avalokiteśvara expanded as a corollary to the cult of Amitābha since the bodhisattva is said to appear to individuals who will be reborn in the Pure Land to welcome them. By the ninth and tenth centuries, invocation of Avalokiteśvara was a common component of mainstream Mahāyāna Buddhism in Silla Korea. The Worship of Avalokiteśvara in Medieval Sinitic Buddhism In medieval China, the cult of Avalokiteśvara developed from murky beginnings into a religious force embraced by all strata of Chinese society . Avalokiteśvara (Ch. Guanshiyin or Guanyin) is the bodily manifestation of the Buddhist concept of compassion (chabi, Ch. cibei), which acts as the Mahāyāna counterbalance to the Buddhist pursuit of wisdom (chihye , Ch. zhihui). Avalokiteśvara was accessible through supplication any- The Cult of Aalokiteśara  time or anyplace, particularly when one was in danger, and recollection of Avalokiteśvara’s characteristics and recitation of his name were the basic practices of the cult. As with the cults of Maitreya and Amitābha, aristocratic monks and laity commissioned images of Avalokiteśvara to generate merit and serve as objects of worship. The cult of Avalokiteśvara flourished throughout the Northern and Southern dynasties period and entered the Korean peninsula, where Silla aristocrats made images and supplicated Avalokiteśvara for temporal blessings. The process by which Avalokiteśvara transformed into the Chinese Guanyin is closely linked to representations of Avalokiteśvara in Buddhist literature that circulated in medieval China.1 The most important is the well-known chapter on the bodhisattva in the LotusSūtra, “The Gateway to Everywhere of the Bodhisattva He Who Observes the Sounds of the World” (Guanshiyinpusapumenpin).2 This chapter, which circulated separately as the AvalokiteśvaraSūtra (Guanshiyinjing), outlines the situations and methods for praying for the aid of Avalokiteśvara by intoning the bodhisattva’s name. The bodhisattva also appears in a prominent place in the Pure Land sūtras as an attendant of Amitābha. In the Lotus Sūtra’s chapter on Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva is said to appear in the world to save beings in thirty-three different apparitional forms according to the needs of the people to whom he manifests.3 A similar list of thirty-two transformation bodies is found in the ŚūraṃgamaSūtra.4 Also germane to the development of the cult are indigenous Chinese scriptures , such as KingGao’sSūtraofAvalokiteśvara (GaowangGuanshiyinjing), which are closely associated with the cultic practices of making images of Avalokiteśvara, sūtra chanting, and dhāraṇīs.5 Typically, scholars have asserted that the role of the bodhisattva in several esoteric sūtras, in which the bodhisattva is depicted in various esoteric forms, caused the worship of Avalokiteśvara to skyrocket because these forms were linked to rituals and procedures invoking the bodhisattva by means of dhāraṇīs. These so-called esoteric forms include the eleven-headed form (Skt. Ekadaśamukha,Ch. Shiyimian), the white-clad or white-robed form (Skt. Pāṇḍaravāsinī,Ch. Baiyi), the thousand-armed or thousand-handed form (Skt. Sahasrabhuja, Ch. Qianshou), and the thousand-eyed, thousandarmed form (Ch. Qianyan qianbi). Although modern scholars classify these forms of Avalokiteśvara as esoteric or tantric Buddhist...