Avalokiteshvara is a Buddhist deity with multiple identities, some of which I outlined in an earlier post. In Vietnam, this deity appears as Quan Am.
This sculpture, carved in Vietnam in the nineteenth century, portrays Quan Am attired in a white robe. So it is that here Avalokiteshvara manifests both as Vietnamese, and as the White Robed Bodhisatva of Compassion — showing how one deity’s manifestations can be shaped both by theological concerns, and by regional or national identity.