(Guanyin)
Shanzi province, Datong area, Yungang Cave 25
Northern Wei period (386-534), ca. 470-80
Sandstone with traces of pigment

Seated bodhisattvas with their legs corssed at the ankles are
among the most ubiquitous images found in the cave-temple complex
at Yungang, near Datong, in north Shanxi province. Both large and
small examples were carved on the side walls of many of the caves,
as well as on the large central pillars that often filled the
interiors of these constructions. The figure of a small seated
Buddha on the front of the crown is intriguing. By the late fifth
century, such figures were used in Indian art to identify the
bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, who emobides the virtue of compassion.
The presence of such a seated Buddha has remained an iconogrphic symbol
of Avalokiteshvara for millennia.