I recently visited Ancient Siam in Samut Prakan for their Guan Yin Festival. The Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara represents the spirit of compassion and is highly revered among the Chinese and other nations such as India, Tibet, Korea and Japan. The events at Ancient Siam started with paying respect to the female image at various shrines. Guan Yin is regarded as preserver of Buddhism and the chanting was led by eight Chinese monks.
Once this was completed, a small parade was led around Ancient Siam by a 21 meter long dancing Golden Dragon. Here the dragon is passing the Pavilion of the Enlightened. Here there are wooden images of 500 enlightened monks.
Their destination was the golden image of Guan Yin (in Thai this is guan im). This is apparently Thailand biggest Iron/wood carving. Here we were entertained with a dragon dance and then two lions put on a performance.
In this last picture you can see a human tower being built with a five year old standing precariously at the top waving to Guan Yin. Ancient Siam often arrange special activities during national holidays. The next one will be during the Songkran period of 11-18 April 2010. For a list of latest events in Samut Prakan, please visit our site at www.paknam.com.
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