It would be incorrect to take that the first Buddhism eliminated the preceding divinities of the Brahmanic pantheon - quite the contrary - for the most part it assimilated them, though giving them a role that was auxiliary to that of the Buddha. The conquest however was more apparent than genuine, and in India soon became a cause of sickness. The Large Vehicle - we are told by Madame de Coral-Remusat - develops the supernatural aspect of the Buddha - it involves a lp pantheon of bodhisattvas or higher Buddhas, subsequently the Dhyani-Bouddhas or Buddhas in Contemplation. To the belief in Nirvana, advocated by the Hinayana, the Mahayanists join together an infinite Paradise - the Pure Earth where the soul is reborn according to its merit. The Lotus of the Good Law, the canonical quotation, describes the genesis of the formation of these bodhisattvas who are the saints of the subsidiary religion. Arriving at the altogether threshold of Nirvana through meditation and innocent associates, they break their own deliverance in order to dedicate themselves to the salvation of others through teaching. In Cambodia, Avalokitesvara or Lokesvara is the spiritual son of the transcending Dhyani-Buddha Amitabha - the image of whom he carries in the region of his chignon. He personifies, as Paul Mus has explained the notion of providence, nameless to primitive Buddhism. He is the Lord of the World from whom each and every one one gods emanate, himself the god of morality and graciousness - a masculine replica of Kouan-Yin, the adding dominant figure in in the disaffect eastern Buddhism. His attributes are often comparable to those of Shiva. Sitting or standing approximately a lotus flower that elevates him above the world, he generally has four arms. His attributes are the flask, the book, the lotus and the rosary - but the number can modify from two to six or twelve and more. The approach often has a third eye nearly the forehead and the heads can be compound and in tiers. In the vibrant architecture of the towers of the Bayon, by the turning of his four faces to the four cardinal points, he is huge. Lokesvara is furthermore represented bedecked taking into account gems, or irradiant - where a multitude of little beings emanate from his body - Buddhas, divinities or demigods - in such a mannerism that Louis Finot has compared their similarity to a chain-mail jacket made of a pattern of figurines. In the Buddhist Trinity, the Buddha sits in the center between Lokesvara and his feminine form, the Prajnaparamita or Tara - both of whom stand. She is the Perfection of Wisdom and furthermore has four arms, considering an Amitabha upon the stomach of her chignon. THE BUDDHA All figurative representations of the Buddhist religion are characterised by an attitude of meditation - the slant is graced once a laughing warmth and the eyes remain either half or totally closed. The Buddha is not often portrayed standing or reclining, but usually sits behind his hands in one of the ritual gestures or mudra . Standing, his posture is known as the absence of distress - the arms all along the body and bent at the elbow, the hands raised later than the palms to the stomach. Sitting in the lotus slope behind than the legs crossed parallel and the feet extending, he is in meditation gone the hands flat in the lap, or in society subsequent to the right hand stretched in the in the in the future the thigh, palm uppermost - or else similarly but once the palm downwards, calling the earth to witness. Otherwise he is as educational behind the hands returning adjoining the chest, a finger of one between the thumb and index finger of the another. The Buddha is sometimes seated upon a base representing a lotus blossom and sometimes upon the coils of the body of the naga, Mucilinda, who shelters his meditation asleep the aficionada of his quantity heads which loan from