The many arms of Kannon

The visually most interesting Buddha statue is, in my opinion, the Boddhisatva Kannon. Especially in her thousand-armed form (Senju Kannon).

Kannon is a popular deity in most East Asian countries, and Japan is no exception. According to the mythology, Kannon was originally a human princess. Her father wanted to marry her off to some rich/politically powerful man, but Kannon refused to marry anyone who didn't help easing the pain and affliction of humans. This so angered her father that he had her executed. However, the executioner could not fulfill the deed, since all of reality loved Kannon for her great compassion: thus the axe would not bite her. Kannon realized that the executioner would be punished no matter what he did: if he failed to execute Kannon, her father would punsih him, and if he did succeed, he would go to Hell for this sin. Thus she asked the blade to bite her, and accepted the executioner's bad karma as her own: she thus was killed, and went to Hell for taking responsibility for her own death.

However, Kannon would not stay dead: her mercy and compassion was so strong that the part of Hell she ended up in was transformed into a paradise, and she was sent out of Hell and returned to Earth, where she lived quietly in a temple.

A little while later, her father the king became very ill. The physicians found no cure for his ailment, but an oracle then said that the king could be saved by a medicine made out of an arm and an eye of a person without anger, and that such a person lived in a certain temple. When the king's men arrived at the temple, Kannon willingly sacrificed and arm and an eye to cure her father. The king was cured, and when he learned who she was he repented and bade for forgiveness.


The legend ends with Kannon about to ascend into nirvana. However, on her way, she heard crying and stopped and turned about. It was all the people suffering on Earth she heard. Then she decided to stay on the Earth and try to ease the suffering of all. However, she was very worried that she couldn't help everyone, since she had only one arm. But then from her, a multitude of arms burst forth, and since then she had as many arms as she needed to help all people.

Kannon is the goddess of Mercy, and is said to feel compassion with everyone, as the story above shows. In that way, I find her a little similar to the Satan of Christianity, who also accepts all humans without demanding that they adhere to certain rules.



So me of the pictures above are from the Sanjusangendo temple in Kyoto, with 1001 Kannon statues. I visited it, but photographing was not allowed, so I found these pics on the net.