Early on the morning of Wednesday, 7 December 2005, Bro. Chooi Shee Hoong, Vice-President of Tham Wah Wan Temple, Kuala Lumpur, took Venerable Wei Wu, Venerable Zhen Xin, Venerable Fa Yun, Venerable Tian Wen, two female Buddhist laity and me to the Palace of Golden Horses for the Opening Ceremony of the 8 th General Conference of World Buddhist Sangha Council.

Venerable Wei Wu, Venerable Zhen Xin, Bro. Yong, and I journeyed down to Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, 6 December 2005. Bro. Yong and I took turns to drive the Toyota Unser and we stopped at Sungei Perak for a packed vegetarian lunch. We reached Tham Wah Wan in Old Klang Road around 4.30pm, when Bro. Yong bid us farewell as he was keen to go home.

Registration for the 100 Million Mani Mantra Recitation Dharma Assembly began at 9.00am on Saturday, 10 December 2005. A total of 171 persons had signed up as Full Session Participants and 368 had signed up as Part Session Participants at the end of registration at 1.30pm. Full Session Participants had to participate in all the five sessions of chanting per day for nine days. Part Session Participants, as the name implies, could attend one or more sessions on any one or more days.

10 December 2005 marked an important day in the calendar of Than Hsiang Zang Yuan. At 10.00am in the morning, Venerable Wei Wu was at the Centre together with His Eminence, Drubwang Konchok Norbu Rinpoche., three other Rinpoches, seven Lamas and all the Venerables from Than Hsiang Temple.

The Opening Ceremony started with His Eminence, Drubwang Rinpoche leading the chanting with the other Rinpoches and Lamas in Tibetan. This was followed by the Mahayana Tradition blessing and chanting led by Venerable Wei Wu.

Early in June this year, there was a Youth Camp and in December, Than Hsiang Sunday School organized A Children's Camp for children of ten to twelve years of age. More than two hundred children participated in this camp held from 2 nd to 4 th December 2005.

The aim of this camp was to create a helpful, harmonious and loving society by teaching the children good moral values. Activities included morning and evening chanting. Venerable Zhen Xin taught the children the physical aspects of performing the religious ceremony like how to bow and prostrate properly.

The Chanting for the “LIANG HUANG POW CHAN” started off on the morning of 6 th November, 2005 with a good turn out of 74 devotees. The Chanting led by Venerable Fa Yin started at 10:00 a.m.

A group of young novitiates paid a visit to Wan Ching Yuan Centre on the afternoon of 26 November 2005. These young Samaneras and Samaneris (devoted novices observing the Ten Precepts) were part of the Malayan Buddhist Meditation Centre's Novitiate Programme. 26 November 2005 was the last day of their Novitiate Programme and they were going round to visit various temples and doing Dana (presentation of gifts in cash and kind).

A team of dental health care personnel from the Bayan Baru Dental Clinic came to Than Hsiang on the morning of 13 December 2005. This team, headed by Dr. Asha, consisted of three dental nurses and three dental assistants. They set up an educational display on dental health near the front counter and their mobile clinic at one end of the canteen area.

The abbot of Than Hsiang Temple, Venerable Wei Wu, had heard of His Eminence, Drubwang Konchok Norbu Rinpoche and called on Bro. Chooi Shee Hoong, President of Ratnashri Buddhist Centre in Petaling Jaya, to invite His Eminence to perform the 100 Million Mani Puja at Than Hsiang Temple to coincide with the opening ceremony of the Temple's Main Shrine Hall on 1 December 2002.

Bhante Sujato is an Australian Buddhist monk. He was ordained in Thailand at Wat Pa Nanachat in the forest tradition of Ajahn Chah. He spent several years in Thailand, lived with Ajahn Brahmavamso in Perth for three years and spent over a year in Sukhavana cave monastery in Ipoh, Malaysia.