Gwaneum Bodhisattva
A mirror image (gyeongsang) is a Buddhist icon engraved in line on the reflective surface of a mirror. On one face of this piece are finely incised the White-robed Avalokiteshvara and the Heart Sutra, and on the other the Cundi Avalokiteshvara. Although the name "Gwaneum" does not appear in the scriptures for Cundi, the figure embodies the idea of the "mother of seven hundred million buddhas" and "mother of all buddhas of the three ages," and is thought to have been venerated as a Gwaneum symbolizing motherhood. The eight circles around Cundi appear to illustrate, with images, a practice of visualizing a particular seed-syllable for each part of the body; beside the White-robed Avalokiteshvara are an attendant boy and an armored guardian figure with hands joined, and above are carved the Heart Sutra and a votive prayer. Such mirror images are thought to derive from the Esoteric Buddhist rite of visualization (gwansang), in which one becomes one with the deity through the imagination.
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