Guanyin

Cave #57, 618-704 AD. Early Tang Dynasty
Mogao Caves, Dunhuang

By the time this painting was made, the Indian Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara had been transformed into the female savior goddess Guanyin of China. Adorned in sumptuous jewels and silks, and wearing an image of Amida in her crown, she looks in kindly fashion upon the world whose distress she has vowed to relieve.

The style of painting is revolutionary, compared to what was in vogue during the construction of the earlier painted caves like #285.