Jan 30, Penang

The Than Hsiang Temple Canteen in Bayan Baru today donated another RM110,000 to Tsunami survivors in Indonesia and Thailand. On January 1, RM32,500 had been donated to victims in Penang, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The funds were raised by the sale of food and donation collected at the temple canteen since December 30, 2004. As of today more than RM 130,000 had been raised by temple members and customers at the canteen; including more than RM 20,000 raised by the temple's branch in Kuala Lumpur.

A month has passed and people are starting to forget about the need to help victims in the affected countries. Immediate needs have been met quite well but they need to get back on their feet. The temple considers the effort to help as the beginning of the long process for victims to rebuild their lives. For this reason, the temple canteen will continue the fund- raising drive for another month, commencing 1 st February 2005

Funds raised during this period are earmarked for the long-term needs of victims in Thailand. A team was sent to Thailand to gather facts needed to determine the best way to help victims there. On January 31 and February 1, staff members and students of the International Buddhist College established by the temple in Southern Thailand would go to Ban Nam Khem, a fishing village, near Khao Lak to hand over donations, offer counselling services and also conduct special religious services there.

In Penang, a special religious ceremony was also conducted for the victims this afternoon. The religious ceremony was led by Venerable Zhen Ming together with fourteen Sangha members of the Mahayana tradition.

Before the religious ceremony, the abbot of the Temple, Venerable Wei Wu, presented cheques amounting to RM 10,000 and RM 100,000 in aid of victims in Indonesia and Thailand which were received by Miss Fan Hui Qing and Miss Kankamol of Than Hsiang Foundation of Thailand respectively. The Abbot also gave a brief teaching on the lesson to be learned from the Tsunami disaster.

He attributed this disaster to the collective karma of the human race. Man had destroyed nature in a scale as never seen before in history and this had brought about dramatic changes in the climate resulting in so called ‘natural disasters' in different part of the world. These ‘natural disasters' are more frequent in the past 50 years.

The Buddhist teachings place special emphasis on the human mind. The mind defiled by greed, hatred and ignorance drives man to commit unwholesome deeds. Forests in different parts of the world are being destroyed at a rate as never seen before in our recorded history. The collective results of such human unwholesome actions led ultimately to the ‘natural disasters'. The earth quake and tsunami on December 26 reminded Buddhists to focus on the training of the mind. The abbot said, “We should develop generosity instead of greed, loving kindness and compassion instead of hatred and wisdom instead of ignorance.”