Avalokita has, like most Bodhisattvas, many names.  Among the principal are Mahakaruna, the Great Compassionate one, Lokanatha or Lokesvara, the Lord of the world, and Padmapani, or lotus-handed.  This last refers to his appearance as portrayed in statues and miniatures.  In the older works of art his figure is human, without redundant limbs, and represents a youth in the costume of an Indian prince with a high jewelled chignon, or sometimes a crown.  The head-dress is usually surmounted by a small figure of Amitabha.  His right hand is extended in the position known as the gesture of charity.[28] In his left he carries a red lotus and he often stands on a larger blossom.  His complexion is white or red.  Sometimes he has four arms and in later images a great number.  He then carries besides the lotus such objects as a book, a rosary and a jug of nectar.[29]

The images with many eyes and arms seem an attempt to represent him as looking after the unhappy in all quarters and stretching out his hands in help.[30] It is doubtful if the Bodhisattvas of the Gandhara sculptures, though approaching the type of Avalokita, represent him rather than any other, but nearly all the Buddhist sites of India contain representations of him which date from the early centuries of our era[31] and others are preserved in the miniatures of manuscripts.[32]

He is not a mere adaptation of any one Hindu god.  Some of his attributes are also those of Brahma.  Though in some late texts he is said to have evolved the world from himself, his characteristic function is not to create but, like Vishnu, to save and like Vishnu he holds a lotus.  But also he has the title of Isvara, which is specially applied to Siva.  Thus he does not issue from any local cult and has no single mythological pedigree but is the idea of divine compassion represented with such materials as the art and mythology of the day offered.

He is often accompanied by a female figure Tara.[33] In the tantric period she is recognized as his spouse and her images, common in northern India from the seventh century onwards, show that she was adored as a female Bodhisattva.  In Tibet Tara is an important deity who assumes many forms and even before the tantric influence had become prominent she seems to have been associated with Avalokita.  In the Dharmasangraha she is named as one of the four Devis, and she is mentioned twice under the name of To-lo Pu-sa by Hsuean Chuang, who saw a statue of her in Vaisali and another at Tiladhaka in Magadha.  This last stood on the right of a gigantic figure of Buddha, Avalokita being on his left.[34]

Hsuean Chuang distinguishes To-lo (Tara) and Kuan-tzu-tsai.  The latter under the name of Kuan-yin or Kwannon has become the most popular goddess of China and Japan, but is apparently a form of Avalokita.  The god in his desire to help mankind assumes many shapes and, among these, divine womanhood has by the suffrage of millions been judged the most appropriate.  But Tara was not originally the same as Kuan-yin, though the fact that she accompanies Avalokita and shares his attributes may have made it easier to think of him in female form.[35]