Kwanyin was originally a male Bodhisattva of Hindustan Buddhism, but during the process of localization in China, he became a female Bodhisattva, and had a very important position among common people. There were three reasons for that. Firstly, the unconditioned positive regard accords with the female complex in the evolution of humanity. Secondly, the tribulation of Chinese people and the restricted roles of men and women in Chinese culture made people transfer male Kwanyin into a female. Chinese paintings are different from Hindustan. Chinese folk artists either modified paintings of the religion characters introduced from Hindustan Buddhism or created their own images of Kwanyin, which led to the female formulary at last.
