Encyclopedia of Buddhism

Womb, who is generally portrayed as a monk, plays an
important role in Central and East Asia, where he is
revered as a guide to paradise, a protector from the
torments of hell, and, at times, the special guardian of
travelers, and women and children.

By the sixth century, the major bodhisattvas
had acquired multiple manifestations. For example,
Avalokites ́vara, who eventually became the most widely
revered deity in Asia, has both an eleven-headed form
(Ekadas ́amukha) and one with one thousand hands and
one thousand eyes (Sahasrabhujasahasranetra). In Chi-
nese culture, Avalokites ́vara occasionally takes female
forms, which led to his misrepresentation as a Buddhist
“madonna” in early Western studies of the religion.
Mañjus ́r
and Samantabhadra also have manifestations
distinguished by multiple arms and heads. The former,
whose name means “pleasing to behold,” is invariably
depicted as a young prince, and often wears a necklace

made of tiger claws, commonly used in India to pro-

tect children.

Some images show Mañjus ́r
with one head and

four hands, seated in a lotus posture. As befits his role

as a bodhisattva, he is active, leaning slightly to the

right. Mañjus ́r
brandishes a truncated sword in his

primary right hand, and a lotus supporting a text in

his left. His secondary right hand once held an arrow

that was paired with a bow in the left. The first two

implements illustrate his capacity to defeat egoism, the

second his ability to confound ignorance. Often called

T
ksna-Mañjus ́r
, this manifestation of the Bodhisattva

of Wisdom is prevalent in the Himalayas and China,

but not elsewhere in Asia.

Female deities found in later Buddhist traditions are

sometimes understood as buddhas and sometimes as

bodhisattvas. Of these, Ta
ra
, who takes many forms,

some green, some white, is the most prominent. She

MU
DRA
 ANDVISUALIMAGERY

Six common Buddhist Mudras

Gesture of Fearlessness

(a)

Gesture of Appeasement (Argumentation)

(b)

Gesture of Worship

(c)

Earth-Touching Gesture

(d)

Gesture of Concentration

(e)

Gesture of Turning

the Wheel of the Law

(f)

SOURCE:Adapted from Eliade, et al. (1987), vol. 10, p. 135.

FIGURE 1