A Primer on Gender Transformation of Guanyin Bodhisattva in Folk Beliefs

The Guanyin faith in China is a special kind of faith that depends on Buddhism but is independent of it. On the one hand, it is a part of the Mahayana Buddhist system, and its theory and spirit are fully consistent with the principles and spirit of Mahayana Buddhism. On the other hand, Guanyin faith has formed a complete religious belief system in China, with Guanyin worship as its core, including both internal factors such as theoretical doctrines, classics, and the psychology of practice, and external factors such as places, followers, and activities.[1] The purpose of this paper is to attempt to analyse the process of gender transformation in the folk beliefs of Guanyin in the Han region, and to analyse the reasons for Guanyin s change from a male to a female face.