Sahashra Bhooj Lokeshowar Thangka

Beautiful Handpainted vegetable color & gold paint Avalokitesvara Lokeshwor Thangka

A thangka is a classical and stylised form of Nepalese and Tibetan painting, consisting of a painted picture panel surrounded by a textile mantle that is supported by scroll sticks and overlain with a silk cover.

Avalokitesvara is a bodhisattva who embodies the compassion of all Buddhas. This bodhisattva is variably depicted, described and is portrayed in different cultures as either female or male. In Chinese Buddhism, Avalokiteśvara has become the somewhat different female figure Guanyin. In Cambodia, he appears as Lokesvarak, and in Japan, he is called Kanzeon or Kannon.

Avalokiteshvara is the earthly manifestation of the self-born eternal Buddha Amitabha, whose figure is represented in his headdress, and he guards the world in the interval between the departure of the historical Buddha, Gautama, and the appearance of the future Buddha, Maitreya. In yoga there is a belief that we are all aspects of one energy form.

In Buddhism this oneness is sometimes depicted by Avalokitesvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. Avalokitesvara made a vow to stay on earth and help relieve all beings from suffering and if he was to ever become disheartened he would split into a thousand pieces. One day after deep meditation, he looked at the world and realized that he affected only a small portion of the population. In a dispirited state he shattered.When all his pieces were unified again Avalokitesvara had a thousand arms to help the world.