This extremely rare figure depicts Avalokiteshvara standing in tribhanga on a lotus platform. Of the six arms, one pair holds the hands in anjali mudra in front of the chest, while the others respectively hold a pierced star-shaped symbol of the sun and the moon, a kundika, a rosary, and a lotus stem with an attendant bud. The dynamic eleven-headed form is derived from the Indian tradition, where deities with supernatural powers had the ability to manifest themselves in as many as thirty-three different forms to help those in need. Here the eleven heads enable the bodhisattva to detect need in every direction, reminding devotees of the mercy and compassion of Avalokiteshvara.

This Bodhisattva combines the qualities of a prince and an ascetic, with his crown and jewels combined with the yogi's antelope skin over his left shoulder and prayer beads in his middle right hand. Representing the range of Avalokiteshvara's forms and aspects, his eleven heads are finely articulated, all surmounted by a head of the Buddha Amitabha, with whom he is closely associated, and a miniature seated figure of Amitabha Buddha has been placed in the center of every crown.

For the prototype of this iconographical depiction of Avalokiteshvara, see the eleven-headed six-armed copper alloy figure from Western Tibet in the Cleveland Museum of Art, accession no. 1975.101, illustrated in Marylin Rhie, Robert Thurman, and John Bigelow Taylor, Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet. New York, 1996, cat. no. 127.