Macau: Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva

CHINA, Macau

This statue was designed by the Portuguese designer Christina Rocha Leiri to commemorate the Sino-Portugese relationship and is very different from traditional Avalokitesvara statues.
The figure stands on a pedestal with one bare foot showing beneath the skirt. The contemporary design gives the body a stylized and asymmetrical shape as it inclines to one side, the movement further emphasized by the way the robes are swept in that direction by the invisible wind. The figure’s bowed head bears an urna and is covered with a shawl. The hands are hidden but a lotus is clasped in a fold of the robe.
The lotus-shaped base on which the statue stands is actually a two storied building that houses a museum exhibiting the statue’s history and has a library downstairs.