འཕགས་པ་སྤྱན་རས་གཟགས་དབང་ཕྱག་ག་མཚན་བརྒྱ་རྩ་བརྒྱད་པ intro.3
The Hundred and Eight Names of Avalokiteśvara [1]; The Hundred and Eight Names of Avalokiteśvara [1] intro.3
- Language
- English
intro.3
The Noble Hundred and Eight Names of Avalokiteśvara [1] is one of several canonical texts that focus on Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. It belongs to a genre of “Hundred and Eight Names” texts that extoll deities by listing their “names,” which are often more like descriptive epithets. Sixteen such “Hundred and Eight Names” works are included in the Kangyur and the present text is one of three such texts dedicated to Avalokiteśvara. One of these three, The Dhāraṇī-Mantra of the One Hundred and Eight Names of Avalokiteśvara (Toh 634/874), is a completely different text from the present one. However, the other, also titled The Noble Hundred and Eight Names of Avalokiteśvara [2] (Toh 706),¹ is essentially a different recension of the present text.