There are several versions of the legend explaining his eleven
heads, but they all resolve themselves into the following:
Avalokiteshvara, the all pitying one, descended into hell,
converted the wicked, liberated them, and conducted them to
Sukhavati, the paradise of his spiritual father, Amitabha.
He discovered, however, to his dismay, that for every culprit
converted and liberated, another instantly took his place. Legend
claims that his head split into ten pieces from grief and despair
on discovering the extent of wickedness in the world, and the utter
hopelessness of saving all mankind. Amitabha caused each piece to
become a head, and placed the heads on the body of his spiritual
son, Avalokitesvara. Nine of the heads have benign faces and are
depicted in three rows; the tenth has an angry face, while the head
at the top is that of Amitabha.
All the heads, except that of Amitabha, is crowned. In contrast to
the floral crowns of the three rows of heads, the top wrathful head
is adorned with a crown of skulls.
At a symbolic level, eight of the heads represent the cardinal
directions and their intermediate points, and the other three
signify the zenith, the center, and the nadir.
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ps: china often portray Guanyin as a motherly form while Tibetans
often portray Guanyin as a Da zang fu(great gentleman).
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