scholarly journals The Ambiguity of the Gender of Avalokiteśvara: A Comparative Study on the Representations of Avalokiteśvara from India and China during Sui-Tang-Period

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 251786
Author(s):  
Huang Lele
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Han Dynasty ◽  
Process Of Change ◽  
Gender Transformation ◽  
Sentient Beings ◽  
India And China

Buddhism was transmitted to China during the Han Dynasty (202 BCE-220 CE) and integrated with existing Chinese cultures such as Confucianism and Taoism. Within Buddhism itself, Avalokiteśvara, a Bodhisattva who is believed to have made a great vow to assist sentient beings in times of difficulty and postpone his Buddhahood until he has assisted every sentient being in achieving nirvana, experienced a long process of change. One of the striking changes in the image of Avalokiteśvara in China is the shifting of the gender of Avalokiteśvara. The great Sui-Tang dynasties patronized Buddhism as a state cult during the more significant portion of their reign. Many scholars like Wu Yan, Jiao Jie, Sun Xiushen, Cui Feng, etc. observed that the Sui-Tang period was the turning point for the gender transformation of Kuan-yin.[1] In this paper, I am going to do a comparative study on the representations of Avalokiteśvara from both India and China broadly from the seventh to tenth centuries, to see how Kuan-yin transformed in China and whether there might be influences from India in the ways that Kuan-yin’s gender is constructed in the iconography.

A Passionate Patriarch at a Turning Point: Isho-yahbh II and His Letters of Rebuke and Ambiguity

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 164-172
Author(s):  
Steve Cochrane
Keyword(s):  
Turning Point ◽  
Church Of The East ◽  
Christian Leader ◽  
The Church ◽  
India And China

Three decades after Prophet Muhammed’s death in 632, the Patriarch of the Church of the East, Isho-yahbh III, was aware of the growing influence of the new faith of Islam and how many Christians were converting to it. In his letters, the sense of ambiguity and questions that many had about the nature of this faith was apparent and brought out the passionate struggle the Patriarch was feeling as he saw “so many thousands of men called Christians going into apostasy,” many not as the result of compulsion but for economic reasons. A sense of helplessness of the Christian leader comes through in his letters and perhaps contributes to a sense of an unpredictable future. This article explores some of Isho-yahbh’s letters, interacting with the context of Islam spreading further into the areas of Mesopotamia and Persia, yet with a vibrant and widespread Church of the East also spreading to India and China from its homelands in West Asia.

Application of Bradford's Law of Scattering to the Economics Literature of India and China: A Comparative Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Kiran P. Savanur
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Distribution Pattern ◽  
Model Modification ◽  
Bradford’S Law ◽  
Economics Literature ◽  
India And China ◽  
Ranked List

This paper deals with the applicability of Bradford law of scattering of the publications of India and China. The data for the study collected from WOS database, 887 journals publishing 1924 economics subject publications from India and 1627 journals published 4427 Chinese economics publications. The ranked list of journals prepared for both the datasets and the applicability of Bradford’s law was tested. The journals distribution pattern of the economics literature fit Bradford’s distribution pattern. The applicability of Egghe’s model (modification of Leimkuhler’s model) was also tested and found valid for both the datasets.

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