 |
| kwan im love children |
Kuan-Yin was a Chinese Buddhist goddess based on a real woman, the way Kuan-Ti was based on a real man. According to the story, her father murdered her, and she went down to the underworld. But when she got there, she recited the holy books, and that prevented the god of the underworld from torturing the dead souls. He didn't like that, and so he sent Kuan-Yin back to be alive again. When Kuan-Yin came back to life, she spent all her time studying Buddhist ideas, and so the Buddha made her immortal (so she would never die).
Kuan Yin became the goddess of mercy and compassion. She was very popular. People who wanted her to help them shook rattles and set off firecrackers to get her attention. She is usually shown as a lady holding a baby, dressed in white, sitting on a lotus.
Stories about Kuan-Yin seem to have actually gotten started from stories about a male Indian boddhisatva called Avalokitesvara. Somehow, along the way, Kuan-Yin changed both her name and her gender!
