Eleven-Headed, Thousand-Armed Bodhisattva of Compassion (Avalokiteshvara)
1500
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1500
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
You see a golden figure with eleven heads stacked like a tower and a thousand arms fanned out like rays of the sun. Each palm has an eye painted in the center. This version of Avalokiteshvara comes from a story about a princess who prayed for leprosy to avoid marriage. While meditating in a cave, she saw this exact vision—eleven heads to hear every cry, a thousand hands to help. If you want to see more like it, look up western Tibet.
