The Canteen and Restaurant in Than Hsiang Temple has been a popular choice for vegetarian food since its beginnings in 1992. Hence, for the Ninth Lunar Month Vegetarian Food Festival, the place was a veritable wonderland of vegetarian food. Such was the great variety of food, one would have to return many times to be able to sample all the offerings. It was just as well the Vegetarian Food Festival was for a whole ten days from 21st to 30th October 2006.

There were Laksa, Hor Fun, Curry Mee, Fried Bee Hoon as well the Fast Food Corner offering a variety of fifteen dishes to go with the white or brown rice. The Organic Food Counter was equally appealing with a good number of organic vegetable dishes and soup. Then there were the sweet-meats, jelly, kueh, cakes and biscuits – all equally mind blowing in choice and taste.

Up in Level 5 in the Multi Purpose Hall, hundreds of people daily crowd the Buffer Banquet tables to enjoy a long sumptuous lunch from 11.30am to 2.00pm. On offer were salted “fish” or butter rice or “ulam” rice, Shitake mushrooms, curry “mutton”, “pork leg” in vinegar, lotus roots, Hainan “chicken”, stir-fried vegetables, satay, laksa, rojak, nonya kueh, bubur chacha, green bean soup, red bean soup, and fruits to name a few as the menu changed from day to day.

Over in the Ground Floor of Sunshine Square, the Than Hsiang Mitra Welfare operated a long stall selling fast food, nasi lemak, hot-dogs, burgers, chee cheong fun, jelly, nonya kueh, and other cakes. They too were well patronised, especially by the shopping crowd.

In Lebuhraya Batu Lanchang, however, Than Hsiang Wan Ching Yuen Centre had set up shop on a much grander scale. Theirs is a truly vegetarian hawker food centre. The “fish-head” beehoon soup was tops, so was the “cuttlefish” kang-kong vegetable dish. The nasi lemak was something to die for, so it was not surprising to find it finished early in the day. Then there were the Java mee and laksa, which had to be sampled, not to mention the vast variety of jellies, nonya kueh and cakes – all mouth watering morsels of food.

The success of the Vegetarian Food Festival largely hinged on the many volunteers who toiled, day in day out, at the stall and food counters for the whole ten days of the festival. Most of the volunteers are devotees of Than Hsiang Temple and had been helping since the Temple first started. Some of them not only volunteered their services, but they also cooked, prepared and donated the food for sale during the festival. Such dedication and generosity is hard to come by and we at Than Hsiang greatly admire and respect their magnanimity.

Many of the volunteers are working in high management positions and it was an experience for them to work away at the food stalls. They spent their holidays and weekends working side by side with everyone else from morning till night. As one such volunteer, Sis. Ng Siew Hong, put it, “Now I know it's a tough life to be a hawker!” This is truly putting oneself in the place of others to be able to empathise with them. Isn't this great to see the Dharma being practiced in this manner?

Even the householders in Lebuhraya Batu Lanchang found Dharmic joy in helping the Wan Ching Yuen Centre's vegetarian food court there. They all willing gave up their car parking space in front of their houses so that Wan Ching Yuen Centre could set up stalls to raise funds for their Bukit Berapit Retirement Village. One householder happily allowed a freezer to be temporarily kept in his house, while another supplied free electricity and another supplied free piped water. Another householder allowed patrons at the food stalls the free use of the house toilets. It seemed the small community there had adopted Wan Ching Yuen Centre's Vegetarian Food Court. A big Sadhu to them all.

At the end of the Vegetarian Food Festival, Venerable Wei Wu, the Abbot of Than Hsiang Temple, expressed his happiness in seeing so many of the volunteers coming forward to make the ten day festival a resounding success. He said that while everyone was tired with all the hard, physical work put in, he hoped they were not tired spiritually. Venerable Wei Wu informed that in a few more weeks, Than Hsiang Temple would be organising the Seven Day Amitabha Recitation Retreat and he hoped the volunteers would come in again to participate in this event – this time to cultivate spiritually. and share even more in the merits.
May all beings be well and happy. Amituofo!