Background of Thousand-hand Bodhisattva

In ancient times, King Miaozhuang had three beautiful princesses. The youngest princess was Miaoshan. This princess started to believe in Buddhism when she was child. And she went to a temple and became a nun to continue her Buddhist practices. The king, her father, persuaded her to come back to palace, but she refused his father. Then, the king became angry and destroyed the temple.

This resulted in punishment from God. 500 festers spreaded over the body of the king. The king invited many doctors, but all of them could not provide cure. One of the doctors said that only a hand and an eye of the king's child could cure the festers. So, the king went to his first two daughters for help. The two daughters were all not willing to sacrifice their hand and eye. When the third daughter, Princess Miaoshan, got to know it, she sacrifice her hand and eye to cure his father without any hesitation.

The king had been cured and Sakyamuni was also moved by the filial piety of Princess Miaoshan. So, Sakyamuni rewarded her with 1000 hands and 1000 eyes. Then, princess Miaoshan became the Thousand-hand Bodhisattva.