“WHAT! Spend the first day of Chinese New Year away from family and friends?

On Sunday, 5 February 2006, the Multi-Purpose Hall started to fill with people attending the Chinese New Year Celebrations. Just before 2.00pm, Venerable Wei Wu greeted the Gun Teng Men lion dance troupe at the Temple's main entrance and led the pair of lions to the Great Compassion Hall (Dai Bei Dian) where the lions paid their respects to Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva and then distributed mandarin oranges to Venerable Wei Wu, Dato' Dr. Teng Hock Nam, Dato' and Datin Steven Ooi, Bro. Foo Kee Jean, Assistant Secretary of Than Hsiang Buddhist Welfare Association .

Buddhist Chinese New Year Celebration

Date: 5 February 2006, 2.00 p.m.

Venue:
Multi Purpose Hall, 5 th Floor
Than Hsiang Temple
132 Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah
11900 Bayan Lepas, Penang

Early at 8.30am on 10 January 2006, a large group of staff and volunteers gathered at the Hall of Great Compassion (Dai Bei Dian) to listen to a short talk by Venerable Wei Wu before the great spring cleaning of the year got underway. Venerable Wei Wu said that although it was traditional to do a big cleaning once a year, he advised everyone to do cleaning throughout the year so that not much dirt and rubbish would accumulate; else it would be a tough job in doing the spring cleaning.

On the night of Friday, 30 December 2005, about fifteen people of various ages met for a workshop on MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator). Most of them were volunteers of Mitra Welfare Centre and the others had come to know of this workshop through friends in the Mitra Welfare Centre.

Yew Lye Hin: Could you tell me about the Buddhist organization you are from?

Venerable Karma Lekshe Tsomo teaches Buddhism and World Religions at the University of San Diego. She is an ordained American bhikshuni of German descent. She is the president of Sakyadhita: International Association of Buddhist Women and has helped organized nine national and international Sakyadhita conferences since 1987. She is one of the founders of eight education programmes for women in the Indian Himalayas. She has written a number of books, amongst them is “Living and Dying in Buddhist Cultures” with David W. Chappell.