June 27, 2004:-

Sunday 27 June 2004 dawned with a cool, clear sky at Than Hsiang Temple. For the past week, the sky was full of haze from cross-border pollution. Then the sky opened with a downpour for most of Friday night and Saturday. The sunny Sunday morning therefore was a welcome relief to everyone busy preparing for the Vegetarian Food Fair.

The Food Fair officially opened at 10.00 am with a ceremony held at the Multi Purpose Hall. The Abbot gave a brief history of Than Hsiang Temple in his opening speech. His speech centered on the formation of the International Buddhist University and the need to raise funds to bring the University to reality and success. The audience was urged to publicize the Temple 's activities and support the realization of the Temple 's four convictions of the young to learn, the strong and healthy to serve, the aged and sick to be cared for, the departed to find spiritual destination.

The Abbot's speech was followed by a prayer chanting, at the end of which, the representative of Buddhist Association of Central Kedah, Mr. Xu Wu Yan, struck the large bell-gong. All the other sponsors then appeared on stage in separate groups to pop party paper streamers. This was followed by various performances given by the Kindergarten group, Wan Ching Yuen and Sunday School. The invited guests then sat down to a lavish vegetarian buffet.

Meanwhile at the ground floor, the sixty-three stalls, spread out all over the Temple complex, were doing a brisk business with the early crowd. These stalls offered numerous choices of prepared food, dry food stuff, fruits and fruit juices, Buddhist publications and posters, paraphernalia for prayers, and other miscellaneous items.

There were food demonstrations for the preparation of Kra Jeab ( Roselle ) drink and Som Tam (papaya salad). The Som Tam was refreshing delicious and it was soon sold out. Peace House also saw their Black Pepper Chicken finished early in the day due to tremendous response. The colorful and exquisite shaped Konnyaku Jelly was another food item that sold out early. Ms Jassie Soon prepared this Japanese jelly from a kind of yam-potato (taro family), fruit and vegetable juices, and natural coloring matter. The Wan Ching Yuen stall also saw good response to their “fish-head” noodle soup. The pandan rice and chee cheong fung were among the other food that sold like hot cakes.

The Butterworth Buddhist Association members innovatively prepared and steamed their “Chye Kueh”. Another crowd was attracted to Mr. Huang Sheng Cai's group preparing cute animal and insect balloons. These were a favourite of both adults and children. Other attractions of the Food Fair were continuously announced over the public-address system. The crowd, with the help of strategically placed site-maps, would then look for these attractions at the stalls.

An idea of the crowd could be judged by the number of cars that filled the car park and beyond. Thanks to the many volunteers that toiled under the noon-day sun, the flow of vehicles in the access road leading to the car park and inside the car park itself was smooth and without incident. Other volunteers, besides those manning the stalls, were seen moving among the crowd hawking their wares of buns, snacks, roti mini (vegetarian version of the nonya's roti babi), and even soy sauce. It is without doubt the success of the Food Fair owes much to the hard effort of the many volunteers. When the Abbot went round to present certificates of appreciation to all the sponsors of the stalls, he had warm smiles of appreciation for these volunteers too.

Towards the close of the Fair, everyone was carrying bags and bags of food and other items. One enterprising lady even tied her recent purchase of a pair of shoes at her waist pouch to leave her hands free to carry the many bags of packed food. The Fair was so successful many stalls were empty before the Fair closed at 3.00 pm . Even the potted plants were sold out; such was the support from the Buddhist fraternity of Penang .