Buddhist Deity: Avalokiteshvara (108 Names)

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Avalokiteshvara Source Texts

Subjects, Topics & Types:
- Description (below)
- Texts (below)
- Seto Macchendranath (108 Drawings & 108 Metal Plaques)
- Compendium Paintings
- Confusions: Six Avalokiteshvara (Zhiyi), Thirty-Three Avalokiteshvara (Saddharma Pundarika)
- Others...

Video: The One Hundred & Eight Names of Avalokiteshvara (HAR on Patreon [12 min.])

There is no historical, textual or iconographic system describing 108 forms of Avalokiteshvara. The modern idea for depicting 108 forms appears to have originated with the Jana Bahal temple of Kathmandu Valley in the late 18th or 19th century.

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The Six Avalokiteshvara of the Chinese System based on the scholar Zhiyi (538-597):
1. Arya
2. Chintamani Chakra
3. Hayagriva
4. Chunda
5. Thousand Armed
6. Eleven Faced

In Japan, additions and substitutions can add to the list with the inclusion of the Willow Branch and Amoghapasha Avalokiteshvara iconographic forms.

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Source Texts: 84000, Translating the Words of the Buddha

Toh 634/874. The Incantation of the One Hundred and Eight Names of Avalokiteśvara (avalokiteśvarāṣṭottaraśataka­nāma dhāraṇīmantrasahitam, སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་ཀྱི་མཚན་བརྒྱ་རྩ་བརྒྱད་པའི་གཟུངས་སྔགས། · spyan ras gzigs kyi mtshan brgya rtsa brgyad pa'i gzungs sngags). [5 pages]

Toh 705/900. The Hundred and Eight Names of Avalokiteśvara (avalokiteśvarasya nāmāṣṭaśatakam, སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་ཀྱི་མཚན་བརྒྱ་རྩ་བརྒྱད་པ། · spyan ras gzigs kyi mtshan brgya rtsa brgyad pa). [4 pages]

Toh 706. The Hundred and Eight Names of Avalokiteśvara (avalokiteśvarasya nāmāṣṭaśatakam, སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་ཀྱི་མཚན་བརྒྱ་རྩ་བརྒྱད་པ། · spyan ras gzigs kyi mtshan brgya rtsa brgyad pa). [5 pages]

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The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sadhanamala and Cognate Tantric Texts of Rituals. Benoytosh Bhattacharyya. Published by Oxford, Humphrey Milford, 1924.

108 Forms of Avalokiteshvara. Excerpted from Benoytosh Bhattacharyya, The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay, Calcutta, 1958 (2nd ed.). Selected by Jampa Namgyal.

Jeff Watt 7-2025