It was 14 th February 2014. Valentine’s Day, and coincidentally, the 15th Day of Lunar New Year, the Chinese Valentine’s Day. Being a working day, I have no romantic plans whatsoever, and even when my husband messaged me saying that he’ll be coming back early, I did not take it seriously. I mean, it was a working day, he has been busy throughout the week and so am I.
Initially, my friend Wendy and I wanted to celebrate our Chap Goh Mei by going to the river in Taman Jaya and throw oranges for love and luck (yea, yea, I know, it’s supposed to be for singles, but we just wanna have fun!), but due to unforeseen circumstances, we ended up going separate ways instead. LOL.( Some friends apparently got stuck in the terrible V-day jam and couldn’t join us, so we called it off instead.)
But lucky for me and Wendy, our respective husbands really did make time for us and came back early from work. While Wendy went on a hot date with her husband, I ended up in a mall waiting for my husband to join me instead.
I was in luck. While waiting for my husband, who took the trouble to get off from work early and fetch me for Chap Goh Mei cum Valentine’s Day dinner, I chance upon the Dance of The Thousand Hands performance at the mall.This ancient dance tells the tale of Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy.
Guanyin is a translation from the Sanskrit Avalokitasvara, referring to the Mahayana bodhisattva of the same name. Guanyin is revered by Chinese Taoists as a deity.
According to the Dance of Thousand Hands, Guanyin vowed to never rest until she had freed all sentient beings from sufferings and reincarnations. Unfortunately for Guanyin, despite of her efforts,there were still many unhappy beings yet to be saved.
After struggling to comprehend the needs of so many, her head split into eleven pieces.
The Buddha, upon seeing her plight, gave her eleven heads to help her hear the cries of those who are suffering.
Upon hearing these cries and comprehending them, Avalokitesvara attempted to reach out to all those who needed aid, but found that her two arms shattered into pieces.
Seeing her plight, once again the Buddha came to her aid and appointed her a thousand arms to let her reach out to those in need.
Lovely tale isn’t it? 😀 The dance is lovely too.
Here’s sharing the video of the Thousand Hands Dance/Dance of The Goddess of Mercy that I managed to record the other day. 😀 I hope you’ll enjoy it the way I did.
Cleffairy: Thanks for coming home early for V-day. I did not expect it.
Cleff, glad to hear you are having a memorable Valentine’s Day!
im looking at ‘bengkak’ hakhakhak
garfield said… not me… but very nice entry… nice pic
and video also…
happy CNY.. wow.. nice dance.. 🙂
https://www.norainyusoff.com/2014/02/makanan-yang-menarik-di-tawau.html
i would love to watch this. saya salu suka kisah2 zaman dulu,, huhuu
Hello! This is my first comment here so I just wanted to give a quick
shout out and say I truly enjoy reading your posts.Love the dance
Hello! This is my first comment here so I just wanted to give a quick
shout out and say I truly enjoy reading your posts.Love the dance