Guanyin seated in Royal-ease pose

The bodhisattva Guanyin (Sanskrit Avalokiteshvara) is an important figure in the Mahayana ­Buddhist tradition. Bodhisattvas are enlightened beings who reject Buddhahood to remain in the six realms of transmigration, where they can allay suffering and help others to attain enlightenment. In his Chinese translation of the Indian sacred text the Lotus Sutra, the Indo-Iranian missionary Kumarajiva (ca. a.d. 350–410) refers to the deity as the Bodhisattva of Infinite Compassion. In chapter 25 of the text, the deity vows to save those in danger of murder, shipwreck, and other forms of suffering. Guanyin could appear in more than thirty different manifestations in the quest to aid others along the path to enlightenment, each of which is described in the Lotus Sutra. These different manifestations reflect the bodhisattva’s use of "skillful means" (Sanskrit upaya) to appeal to a variety of people who possess different capacities to understand the teachings of Buddhism. The bodhisattva’s full Chinese name Guanshiyin, as translated from the Sanskrit by the monk Xuanzang (a.d. 602?–644), means "Observer of the Cries of the World." Over time, the deity became one of the most beloved deities in China. A cult devoted to the deity emerged between the third and the sixth century, and with the rise of the Pure Land School of Buddhism in the seventh century, Guanyin became a prominent figure in the Chinese Buddhist pantheon. Bodhisattvas have technically transcended the physicality of gender, which in Mahayana Buddhism is considered but a delusion of the unenlightened. In sculptural form, however, bodhisattvas are generally presented as androgynous handsome males. In contrast, this sculpture of Guanyin can be read as being either male or female. The feature speaks to the gradual feminization of the deity in the Chinese context, where an eleventh-century apocryphal sutra presented a white-robed form of the bodhisattva along with a "child-giving" form having the power to bestow sons upon female devotees. Around the beginning of the twelfth century, the bodhisattva became associated with a tale of the ancient princess Miaoshan, who was said to have been banished from the palace upon her refusal to marry. After she donated her own eyes and arms as medicine to cure her father’s illness, she was revealed to be a thousand-armed, thousand-eyed goddess. This thousand-armed and -eyed figure corresponds to a manifestation of Guanyin, who uses her eyes to see all the world’s troubles and her arms to assist those in need. The popular reference to Guanyin as the "Goddess of Mercy" stems from early Jesuit interpretations of the deity’s function.

This figure is identified as Guanyin by the miniature image of Amitabha Buddha in the crown. The circular urna in the forehead, one of the marks of an enlightened being, is empty, but presumably originally contained a piece of glass or rock crystal. The figure’s relaxed pose of rajalilasana, or royal ease, with a raised leg and casually draped arm, did not become associated with the deity until late in the ninth century.

Despite the languid posture, the torso retains a sense of unmoving solidness, disturbed neither by much movement nor by dramatic distortion. The paridhana skirt, draping the lower portion with beautiful ease, is confidently natural and conforms to the shape of the body underneath. Temple sculptures were periodically redecorated, and the addition of relief designs on the surface of the skirt and scarves probably occurred sometime in the Ming dynasty (1368–1644).