![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEv1RYmWKIE1L_AG44faUXS5rsYRzH-BIJknrZcDVNdNsd2pb9anbsapIV7De2yNejHfgRk3sV3J0qDeEX1Qai1YpnvdPz94n0Azf2I8IBUVxmapl4TxAOfnHUIIUoCRKLyk2qd4uTE1Gn/s400/b_Quan+The+Am.jpg)
One of the most common objects of popular devotion in Vietnam is this woman – Quan The Am, the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvhYipjDrAM3ppiZZuZSDN4QggQNeltTGV1pqFWFKndbbs4d-KI2LCcCodkK4GNaJs3pir61FUKqWjBZz7Ss8w87uBLssEDd2qAHm1RdYbmS_KLva1RsRUChyphenhyphen0IRfQYGvNlk92KdoVjUO4/s400/b_Quan+The+Am+5.jpg)
In the West she is more commonly known by her Chinese name, Kwan Yin. Shrines to her are to be found everywhere in Vietnam, in people’s houses, on streetsides, in temples.
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She embodies the qualities of compassion and unconditional love. Vietnam’s culture has a great reverence for the mother, and people indulge in a great deal of devotion directed toward this idea of the Divine Mother – one of her appellations is Me Hien, the Gentle Mother.
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I love this idea of the sacred feminine, and it is one of the aspects of Vietnamese spirituality that draws me constantly back.
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I grew up a Protestant boy in rural North Queensland, and reverence for the Holy Mother was not something I had ever encountered in my past.
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