page_title: Avalokiteśvara
section_title: Theravāda account
hierarchical_section_title: Avalokiteśvara / Origin / Theravāda account
caption_attribution_description: English: The Shwenandaw monastery is the most significant of Mandalay’s historic buildings, since this ‘Golden Palace Monastery’ remains the sole major survivor of the former wooden Royal Palace built by King Mindon in the mid-nineteenth century. Originally part of the royal palace at Amarapura, it was moved to Mandalay, and, with the name Mya Nan San Kyaw, became the northern section of the Glass Palace and part of the king’s royal apartments. King Mindon died in this structure in 1878, and his son and successor, King Thibaw, often went there to meditate. He soon became convinced, however, that Mindon’s spirit was haunting the building, and in 1878 he ordered it dismantled and removed from the Royal City. Over the next five years it was reconstructed as a monastery--and dedicated as a work of merit to the memory of King Mindon--on a plot adjoining the Atumashi Monastery near the northeast corner of the Royal City. The rest of the old Royal Palace within the old Royal City (now Mandalay Fort) burned during the latter stages of the Second World War as a result of allied bombing of the Japanese ensconced in the old Royal Palace. King Thibow’s superstition thus had preserved a significant remnant of the Royal Palace. Beautiful carving remains on the building, which is made of teak wood.
context_page_description: Avalokiteśvara or Padmapani English: UV-əl-oh-kih-TAY-shvər-ə; is a bodhisattva who embodies the compassion of all Buddhas. This bodhisattva is variably depicted, described and portrayed in different cultures as either male or female. In Tibet, he is known as Chenrezig. In Chinese Buddhism, Avalokiteśvara has evolved into the somewhat different female figure Guanyin, also known in Japan as Kanzeon or Kannon. In Nepal Mandal this figure is known as Jana Baha Dyah, Karunamaya, Seto Machindranath.
context_section_description: Veneration of Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva has continued to the present day in Sri Lanka:
  In times past both Tantrayana and Mahayana have been found in some of the Theravada countries, but today the Buddhism of Ceylon, Burma, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia is almost exclusively Theravada, based on the Pali Canon. The only Mahayana deity that has entered the worship of ordinary Buddhists in Theravada countries is Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara. In Ceylon he is known as Natha-deva and mistaken by the majority for the Buddha yet to come, Bodhisattva Maitreya. The figure of Avalokitesvara usually is found in the shrine room near the Buddha image.
   In more recent times, some western-educated Theravādins have attempted to identify Nātha with Maitreya Bodhisattva; however, traditions and basic iconography (including an image of Amitābha Buddha on the front of the crown) identify Nātha as Avalokiteśvara. Andrew Skilton writes:
  ... It is clear from sculptural evidence alone that the Mahāyāna was fairly widespread throughout [Sri Lanka], although the modern account of the history of Buddhism on the island presents an unbroken and pure lineage of Theravāda. (One can only assume that similar trends were transmitted to other parts of Southeast Asia with Sri Lankan ordination lineages.) Relics of an extensive cult of Avalokiteśvara can be seen in the present-day figure of Nātha.
  Avalokiteśvara is popularly worshiped in Myanmar, where he is called Lokanat or lokabyuharnat, and Thailand, where he is called Lokesvara. The bodhisattva goes by many other names. In Indochina and Thailand, he is Lokesvara, "The Lord of the World." In Tibet he is Chenrezig, also spelled Spyan-ras gzigs, "With a Pitying Look." In China, the bodhisattva takes a female form and is called Guanyin (also spelled Kwan Yin, Kuanyin or Kwun Yum), "Hearing the Sounds of the World." In Japan, Guanyin is Kannon or Kanzeon; in Korea, Gwan-eum; in Vietnam, Quan Am.
caption: Wood carving of Lokanat at Shwenandaw Monastery, Mandalay, Burma
exif: {}