According to one ancient legend Quan Yin’s name was Miao Shan, and she was the daughter of an Indian Prince. Youthful and serene, Quan Yin chose to follow a path of self-sacrifice and virtue and became a pious follower of Buddha, therefore attaining the right to budddhahood, but remaining on earth to assist humankind.
To convert Quan Yin’s blind father to Buddhism, she visited him transfigured as a stranger and informed him if he were to swallow an eye of one of his children, his sight would be restored. His children would not consent to the necessary sacrifice, whereupon the future goddess created an eye, which Quan Yin’s father swallowed and he regained his sight. Quan Yin then persuaded her father to join the Buddhist priesthood by pointing out the folly and vanity of a world in which children would not even sacrifice an eye for the sake of a parent.
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