Avalokiteshvara (Guanyin) of the South Sea

Guanyin, the Buddhist Lord of Mercy, sits with her right leg folded and her left leg raised, on a throne of rock above the waves. She carries the pure vase containing water of sweet dew, with smoke rising from it. In her other hand is a prayer bead. To balance the composition, a lotus blossom rises from the water on the right. Behind Guanyin is hou, her animal mount, which should resemble a composite beast. Here it appears as a lion-like animal with curly mane but with anther-like horns.

The rocky base represents Putuo Palace, and identifies this form as Guanyin of the South Sea (Nanhai Guanyin). Since the 1500s, when it was patronized by the Wanli emperor and his mother Empress Dowager Li, Putuo has been a center of national and international pilgrimage for the worship of Guanyin., Succeeding emperors of the Qing dynasty continued its patronage in the 1600s and 1700s, and the image of the Guanyin of the South Sea became a popular image for worship (C ^{hün-fang Yü. [year], 164).}