Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. The history of the formation and development of the Mahayana cult

The figure of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshwara, personifying an infinite compassion, many centuries in a row attracted the attention of various people who lived in the vast spaces of the Eurasian mainland - magicians, thinkers, poets, artists, sculptors, as well as emperors, officials and simple peasants.
The well-known St. Petersburg orientalist D.V. Popovtsev traces in detail the main stages of the formation and development of the cult of this Bodhisattva. Attracting a large mass of sources in a variety of languages, the author shows how in the framework of the Buddhist worldview, originally nonetistic, there was a unique set of narrative motives and symbols, now known as Mahayana mythology. It is largely comparable to the mythological systems of classical antiquity and ancient India, and in relation to complexity and polymorphism exceeds them.
For the first time in Russian, there are a number of extremely important and significant monuments of Buddhist religious thoughts, revealing specifically Mahayan methods to achieve modified states of consciousness. In their number, there is a Paradavier Sutra - text, on the pages of which the famous Mantra "Om Mana Padme Hum" appears, which plays a key role in the religious life of a number of Asian peoples.
A significant contribution of the author to the domestic science about the East is a shown of a close connection between the Buddhist cult and the archaic forms of religious life