清十八世紀 銅鎏金十一面觀音立像

cast standing with eight arms and eleven heads, arranged in five tiers, the principal hands held in anjalimudra, the others fanned out, one holding a kundika, another a lotus, adorned with jewellery and fluttering scarves, with a deer skin slung across one shoulder

The eleven-headed Avalokiteshvara is an esoteric form of the bodhisattva, believed to have overcome eleven hardships in order to attain Buddhahood. In another explanation of the iconography, Avalokiteshvara fails to fulfill his vow of saving all sentient souls from hell and his head splits into one hundred pieces. Amitabha Buddha gathered up the pieces and consolidated them into ten heads which he placed on Avalokiteshvara's shoulders, crowning the ten heads with one of his own, to symbolize that Amitabha is always there to aid him in his goal of universal salvation.