Guan Yin descends from the heavens on a lotus flower. In a white robe, the Goddess of Mercy is surrounded by a soft, golden light. She dips a sprig of willow in a vase and sprinkles holy water from home to home.
That's how the story goes on television, at least. Figurines dating back 1,000 years paint a different picture. According to these relics, her name was not Guan Yin - and she wasn't even female.
In the second century, it wasn't just goods being brought from India into China along the Silk Road. The horses and wagons also brought Buddhism. And Guan Yin was the second most popular deity for people to unload their troubles on, after the Buddha.
In her home country of India, Guan Yin is known as Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, which means the one who hears the cries of the world.
In China, her name changed. 'People transliterated her name to make her more approachable,' says antiques collector Chiu Tai-loi. 'She's known as Guan Shi Yin, Guan Yin Pusa or simply Guan Yin.'
The beautiful woman in a white robe is nowhere to be seen in the early figurines. Instead, a well-built, bare-chested man is depicted, sometimes with a moustache. This transformation took place in the seventh-century Tang dynasty, when Empress Wu Zetian ordered statues of the deity be made more feminine.
'When Empress Wu took the highest seat of power, she challenged Confucian norms and elevated women's social status,' Chiu says, pointing to a Tang dynasty Guan Yin with a soft, feminine head on a man's body. 'It was practical - she just wanted to make it easier for her princesses to worship the patron in court.'