Guan
Yin
Shrine
One of the
landmarks that lets us know we
are
getting close to our home at the Beach Village
is the Guan Yin
Shrine. It is spectacular looking, a saintly woman of
outsized
proportions encircled by a Dragon. Eventually we learned
that Guan Yin
is a Buddhist bodhisattva,
a
spirit who renounces the afterlife to stay
among the living and help them. Guan Yin is known for her
compassion,
and in Thailand is referred to as "The Goddess of Mercy."
Despite being
in the middle of nowhere (it is south of the town of
Pranburi and a few
kilometers from Sam Roi Yot), there is a constant flow of
workshippers
at the small shrine at the base of the statue, and there is
a constant
blaring of horns from the vehicles (cars, trucks,
motorcycles) passing
by. Dale took a bike ride up to the shrine to put together
the virtual
tour below.
A
Virtual Tour of the Guan Yin Shrine
Virtual Reality Tour for VR Headsets
There
is also a version of this tour that works with VR headsets
(such as
Google Cardboard) and it runs on both iPhones and Android
phones. It
may be accessed by scanning the QR code to the left. If you
are viewing
this on a smartphone, you may access the tour by clicking on
this
link.
For iOS
devices: scan QR
code with device camera app, tap on prompt to open Safari,
select
"allow device motion" and on the next prompt "allow access
to motion
orientation." Turn device to landscape mode and a split
screen will
appear. When the screen turns white, swipe up for
fullscreen and place
device in headset. Here
is a video of how to do this--it
is simpler
than it sounds! [Video opens in a separate window-close
window to
return to page]
For Android devices:
use the phone's camera to scan the QR code, and then select
the tour
you want to visit. Wait for the tour to load. Tour will
appear in a
split screen, and tap on the "X" and the bottom menu to go
fullscreen.
Turn the phone to portrait mode, place in headset and enjoy
the tour.
Here is a
video
on how to do it--
it
is simpler than it sounds! [Video opens in a separate
window-close window to
return to page]