Product Description

Walk down the streets of Chinatown in any American or western European city and look around. She is there. Walk through the downtown streets, look in a shop window. She is there. Go to any city in China and open your eyes. She is there, too. Kuan Yin is the most ubiquitous Chinese deity - and the most loved. She is the living expression of compassion, whose gentle face and elegant figure form the centre of devotion in most Chinese homes and workplaces. Until relatively recently, she was barely known in the West and few studies had been made of her. This book, originally published as Kuan Yin by Thorsons in 1995, has been revised by Palmer. It falls into three sections: 1. The origins and evolutions of Kuan Yin in ancient China in early Buddhism, Taoism, and shamanism. 2. The Kuan Yin myths and stories. 3. Fresh translations of 100 Kuan Yin poems that function both as literature and divination tools.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #743662 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 156 pages

About the Author
Martin Palmer, the Director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education and Culture, is an expert on interfaith work, author of many books, and translator of numerous Chinese texts. He lives in England. Jay Ramsay is an acclaimed poet, teacher, and therapist. He lives in London.

Customer Reviews

The Kuan Yin Chronicles
Kuan Yin has a special place in the hearts of many people. She is unique in her compassionate, unconditional loving ways and that she is the only female bodhisattva to date. She is also equally popular in not just modern Chinese schools of Buddhism but also a variety of other eastern belief systems.

The Kuan Yin Chronicles looks at the goddess of compassion from the spiritual, historical, and mythological perspective. It details her beginnings as the clearly male Avalokitesvara and then her transformation to female in the eight century. The book also looks at her place in eastern beliefs and mythology. Finally, the work ends with the poems of Kuan Yin and explains how thye can be used for divination purposes.

Whether you are interested in Kuan Yin the women of myth, the goddess, the bodhisattva, or the role model, Kuan Yin Chronicles is an important resource to read.