I'm a little behind with posting, on account of all that cogitating about changes of direction, but the other day we walked to Lorong Wan Alwi 1. This little road, not far from Vivacity mall, is where the Sarawak Buddhist Association is undertaking the construction of a 10-metre bronze statue of Guan Yin, complete with her characteristic lotus pedestal and vase of pure water.



It's this same Guan Yin, of course, who gazes across to our apartment building from the Lim Fah San Monastery.

I'm not at all an expert in this area, so what follows comes with that caveat, but I find her a fascinating figure.

Guan Yin is the goddess of mercy and compassion. She figures in Journey to the West, a work that seems to appear on our horizon at regular intervals. And she is highly proactive, rescuing those in need from dangers as diverse as fire, water, politics, prison, or demons.

The practice of devotion to Guan Yin came to China from India, and then spread to Japan, Korea, and beyond. She is multi-faceted: "Guan Yin can be visualised as either female or male, but the majority, in China particularly, visualise her as Mother Goddess Guan Yin. Yet, she is not separate or different from the male four-armed Avalokiteshvara, thousand-armed Avalokiteshvara, and dozens of forms and emanations: loving, wrathful, passionate, fiery, protective -- but always compassionate."

These attributes also connect her to the Green Tara, whose acquaintance we made in Mongolia and Tibet.

The walk there was interesting, too, marred only by a couple of loose dogs.




You can then cut through Taman Lalu Lintas, the cute little miniature traffic park that we visited last year.

And you can cross the big road on a footbridge, which that day gave us excellent views:



So I'd definitely put this in the "worth doing again" category.