skeletrender:

fuckedupandfantastic:

Im starting to believe there’s some trans mom goddess watching over us

There is!

Quan Yin, “she who hears the cries of the world,” the Bodhisattva of Compassion, is a trans woman. 

In her worship, she started in India as the male bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. Compassion was seen by classical Chinese buddhists as a feminine virtue, and she was slowly feminized in art until the mid-1300s (late Yuan or early Ming Dynasty), when she began being depicted exclusively as a woman.

In her narrative, she transitioned to better attune herself to the suffering of the world, and of women in particular. Her compassion is said to transcend gender, and she will change her form to whichever is best suited for hearing prayers and relieving suffering.

She is prayed to for fertility, for protection in sorrow, for guidance across the seas, and for protection against one’s enemies.

In art, her feet are always bare, and she is usually seen carrying a vase of holy dew, upturned to pour out onto the world. She may be depicted as flat-chested noblewoman, to distinguish her from “divine feminine” figures. She may be depicted standing, or seated in a position of “royal repose,” as opposed to the lotus position that most buddhas are shown in.