Eleven-Faced Avalokitesvara Heart Dharani Sutra

There is a sung version of the dhāraṇī that is very popular among Asian Buddhists and is performed by famous religious or lay artists, which again is also mislabeled as the Great Compassion Mantra in Sanskrit.

[1]It should be kept in mind that until the discovery of the Gilgit manuscripts in 1931, the Ekadaśamukha-sūtra was known only from the Chinese and Tibetan versions, which in turn were retranslated into Sanskrit.

The Indian scholar Nalinaksha Dutt carried out, between 1939 and 1943, a considerable work of reconstitution of the Sanskrit manuscripts, without however translating them into English.

)Later, the Bodhisattva states:[3] 若有稱念百千俱胝那庾多諸佛名號。復有暫時於我名號至心稱念。彼二功德平等平等。諸有稱念我名號者。一切皆得不退轉地。離一切病脫一切障一切怖畏。及能滅除身語意惡。況能於我所說神咒。受持讀誦如說修行。(There may be a practitioner who recites the names of all the Buddhas for hundreds, thousands, millions and billions of times.

[6] It is generally believed that this dhāraṇī has no direct relationship with the Great Compassion Mantra, or Nīlakantha dhāranī in Mahayana Buddhism.

The confusion probably arises from the fact that the two dhāraṇī, though distinct, are also referred to by the same alternative title: Great Compassion Mantra.

[d] The title Eleven-Faced Avalokitesvara Heart Dharani Sutra is due to the Japanese historian Ryuichi Abe.

The chanting of this dhāraṇī is one of the most popular and famous piece of Buddhist music in Chinese-speaking countries and in Vietnam.

Its popularity is probably due to the fact that it sung by famous Asian performers among Buddhists, such as the Nepalese-Tibetan bhikkhunī Ani Chöying Drölma, or the Malaysian-Chinese singer Imee Ooi.

Following the development of the internet in recent decades, the number of online postings by religious organisations is constantly increasing.

The fact that a dharani including in its title: Avalokiteśvara with eleven faces is the subject of a real craze to the point of being assimilated to the "Nīlakaṇṭha" can easily be understood.

[12]Here is the English translation of the most popular sung text in Chinese speaking countries and in Vietnam, realized from the romanized Sanskrit (or IAST) Amogavajra's version.

The last three words (i.e siri, suru, muru) are in intentional vocalic variation for thaumaturgic effect, to impel the Deity to descend.

Eleven Faced Avalokitesvara sculpture, Tang China (around 700 CE), Cleveland Museum of Art .
The Eleven Faced Gwanseum (Korean name of Avalokiteśvara ) , stone carving. Seokguram Grotto , Gyeongju , South Korea .
The annual Tōdai-ji Shuni-e ceremony in Nara , Japan , in 2016. Crowd of Buddhists gathered outside the temple. Inside, during the repentance ceremony, eleven monks invoke the Bodhisattva and repeat the Eleven-Faced Avalokitesvara Heart Dharani Sutra for several hours, six times a day.
South Asian Eleven Faced Avalokitesvara, circa 1000.
Sculpture representing the Thousand-Armed and Eleven Faced Avalokitesvera sitting on a lotus , painted wood, 1656, Vietnam National Museum of Fine Arts , Hanoi .
Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara with Eleven Heads , gilt bronze with copper, gold, silver inlay and pigment, Tibet , 16th century. Norton Simon Museum . The eleven faces symbolize the ten directions of space (the four cardinal directions , the four intercardinal directions , the nadir and the zenith , that the Boddhisattva can observe simultaneously.
Great Compassion Mantra (Chinese: 大悲咒, Dàbēi zhòu ; Vietnamese: Chú Đại Bi ). In Chinese-speaking countries and in Vietnam, this text is as popular as the Eleven-Faced Avalokiteśvara Heart dhāraṇī Sutra , with which it is often confused. This confusion probably stems from the fact that the two dhāraṇī are often incorrectly referred to by the same title: Great Compassion Mantra . The text presented above is the Vietnamese version, a transliteration of the Chinese one. We note that it consists of 84 verses, whereas the Eleven-Faced Avalokiteśvara Heart dhāraṇī has only 21, 24 or 26 verses depending on the version.