A bodhisattva is an important aspect of Buddhism. A bodhisattva is a human being who has completed all karma and reached enlightenment. They are on their way to Buddhahood.
Some goddesses are referred to as female Buddhas. Two of the most famous Boddhisattavas are Kuan Yin and Tara.
Kuan Yin is the Buddhist goddess of compassion, mercy, and healing. She is the "compassionate savioress" worshipped for centuries throughout China, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia. Her name is translated as the being "who hears the cries of the world." She is known also as Quan Yin, Guanyin, and Guan Shih Yin, and she is also identified as Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. She is the patron and protector of women, children, sailors, artisans, and those who are imprisoned. She is as popular as the Virgin Mary in Western culture and is often thought of as having a similar presence. She is seen as a great source of fertility and feminine vitality, but she is available to all people. She serves people in need of all cultures.
Although her bodhisattva status entitled her to enter the paradise of nirvana, Kuan Yin decided to remain on earth until all suffering was ended. Various cultures have different tales of Kuan Yin's beginnings. One legend tells us that she once walked the earth as the maiden princess Miao Shan, whose father ordered her execution because she disobeyed him and refused to marry; some versions say she was spared from death and lived her days in a nunnery. Kuan Yin is often depicted wearing a flowing white gown with her hair pulled up in a headdress. She's seen seated on a lotus or majestically riding a dragon. Sometimes she's pictured as the Thousand-Armed Kuan Yin. She's seen carrying many special emblems, such as a willow branch that she uses to dispense flower essences and ambrosia; a porcelain vase that carries these pure, healing unguents; scrolls or books of Buddhist prayers and wisdom; or a crystal rosary used for meditation.
Tara is the beloved Tibetan Buddhist mother goddess. Monks and devotees chant and evoke her energies daily, calling upon her for everything from world peace to inner peace and protection. Considered a female Buddha, Tara is worshipped in both wild and wild forms, and she exists in a rainbow of colors reflecting her various attributes.
She is known by The 21 Manifestations of Tara. However, Green Tara and White Tara of the Tibetan Tantric tradition are the most popular forms, with Green Tara seen as her fiercer, most dynamic form. As such she is a goddess of action, strength, and special protective powers, who wards off evil and shields you from spiritual harm. According to ledgend, she was born from the tears shed by Avalokiteshvara, the Buddha of compassion, as a gift to end the suffering of all creation. The tears trickling down the left side of the Buddha's face formed the motherly and mature WhiteTara and the salty drops on the right birthed the fearless and youthful GreenTara.
Her legend is somewhat similar to Kuan Yin's; some believe that she was a human princess who lived a life of the highest compassion and spiritual aspiration, dedicated to serving the Buddhist monks. Because of her path, she earned the right to be reborn in male form and teach the ways of the Buddha. She told the monks that since the concepts of male and female were only illusory; she would remain in female form until all of humanity was liberated from illusion and reached enlightenment
Kuan Yin and Tara can be found in New York museums.
-Laurie Sue Brockway