Chinese white" porcelain Guanyin, Dehua, China, 18th century The deity sits with her hair raised above her serene face in a topknot held by a lingzhi hairpin. Her eyes lowered and her urna raised between her eyebrows, she is dressed in voluminous robes falling in folds around her body and opening on her chest to expose a necklace with a lotus flower pendant. Potter's mark on the back. Height : 25 cm Accident, repair and defect in the enamel. Guanyin is known as the bodhisattva of compassion. Guan means "to see"; yin means "sound"; the two words together mean "she who sees and hears". In Buddhist belief, bodhisattvas are beings who have attained enlightenment but have chosen to delay nirvana and stay to help humanity. Guanyin, who was originally a male bodhisattva in India, has been identified as a woman in Chinese and Japanese Buddhist beliefs.