The Promise of Kuan Yin, Martin Palmer
The Promise of Kuan Yin, Martin Palmer
List: $15.99 | Sale: $11.20
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The Promise of Kuan Yin
Wisdom, Miracles, & Compassion

Author: Martin Palmer, Jay Ramsay, Man-Ho Kwok

Narrator: Cindy Kay

Unabridged: 4 hr 39 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/01/2021


Synopsis

The best and most comprehensive book on the most important and best-loved Chinese goddess.

Walk down the streets of Chinatown in any American or western European city and look around. She is there. Walk through the downtown streets, look in a shop window. She is there. Go to any city in China and open your eyes. She is there, too.

Kuan Yin is the most ubiquitous Chinese deity—and the most loved. She is the living expression of compassion whose gentle face and elegant figure form the center of devotion in most Chinese homes and workplaces. Until relatively recently, she was barely known in the West, and few studies had been made of her.

Originally published as Kuan Yin by Harper Collins in 1995 (and republished as The Kuan Yin Chronicles by Hampton Roads in 2009), this seminal work explores the origins and evolution of the goddess in ancient China, early Buddhism, Taoism, and shamanism. Religious scholar Martin Palmer and Chinese divination expert Man-Ho Kwok discuss the Kuan Yin myths and stories, and Jay Ramsay provides fresh translations of 100 Kuan Yin poems that function both as literature and divination tools.

About Martin Palmer

Martin Palmer, the director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education, and Culture, is an expert on interfaith work, author of many books, and translator of numerous Chinese texts. He lives in England.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Peter on March 19, 2025

A succinct and engaging book that provides the history and origins of Kuan Yin, myths and legends about her, and a set of one hundred poems from Kuan Yin. Kuan Yin is a goddess accepted within the Buddhist and Taoist religions, representing compassion and the divine feminine, and is often thought of......more

Goodreads review by Juan on October 11, 2022

Interesting to see the expressions of human religiosity in their search for divinity. Kuan Yin, a goddess who probably came from Buddhism, from Avalokiteshvara and later became a woman, possibly inspired the change in the Virgin Mary, brought by early Christians to China. Chinese gods were generally......more

Goodreads review by Juan on October 11, 2022

Interesting to see the expressions of human religiosity in their search for divinity. Kuan Yin, a goddess who probably came from Buddhism, from Avalokiteshvara and later became a woman, possibly inspired the change in the Virgin Mary, brought by early Christians to China. Chinese gods were generally......more

Goodreads review by Drew on October 31, 2024

It was an interesting book. I come at Kuanyin / Kannon from a Japanese perspective so it was interesting to hear about Kuanyin from a largely Chinese perspective. However, at times it felt like an apologetic and made it hard to connect with. It was well researched and the author does a good job depi......more