YUAN-EARLY MING DYNASTY, 14TH CENTURY

The current bronze Guanyin is cast in an unusual style with very high forehead, slanted eyes and thin pursed lips. The dragon pendant around the neck is also an attribute that is rarely seen on Guanyin figures. There is a gilt-bronze figure of Marichi in the Hall of Gilt-Bronze Sculptures in the Dinosaur Museum in Fenglu, Yunnan, which has very similar facial features and also wears a similar dragon pendant. Marichi was adapted from Buddhism to the Daoist pantheon as the goddess Doumu, and
is here cast in the Daoist style wearing a Chinese robe and chainmail. Guanyin also regularly appears in Daoist temples, and it is likely that the current Guanyin was commissioned around the same time in Yunnan area to be displayed in a Daoist Temple, hence the unusual attributes.