Visit of Officers of Royal NZ Police to FGS South Island
On 30th October 2020, Advisor to NZ Police on Ethnic Affairs Inspector Rakesh Naidoo, together with his colleagues, Mike Klick, Brodile, Roberta Eykholt and Jon Stevenson, paid a visit to Fo Guang Shan (FGS) South Island. They were welcomed by FGS New Zealand Abbess Venerable Manshin and FGS South Island Minister-in-charge Venerable Jue Xi.
The visitors were first guided by Abbess Manshin to the Buddha Hall, where they performed flower offerings and conducted prayers seeking good health and protection in their course of duty. Their wellbeing would in turn make them better equipped to take care of the safety and security of the general public. In the same vein, FGS has also been working closely with the Police in forging a happy and harmonious New Zealand. Afterwards, the visitors were guided to the Fo Guang Yuan (FGY) Art Gallery to visit the Professor Kuo Yen Chiao’s Traditional Chinese Paintings Exhibition, the Practitioners Mind Floral Exhibition, and the Everlasting Beauty of Dun Huang Art Exhibition. At the Floral Exhibition, the visitors were greatly impressed by, and full of praises for, the floral arrangements carried out by Abbess Manshin. This was specially the case with Inspector Rakesh who had, within this year (from the first exhibition to the present sixth exhibition), witnessed Abbess Manshin’s stream of new ideas and her big improvement in floral arrangement skills. At the Everlasting Beauty of Dun Huang Hand Paintings Exhibition, using VR Technology, Buddha’s Light International Association (BLIA) South Island Director Kok Wei Low let the visitors experience virtually the interior of the Dun Huang Grottoes. Their first close-to-real virtual encounters with the Buddha statues of Dun Huang Grottoes left the visitors awestruck, and they could not help but showered the experience with praises.
In her conversation with the visitors, Abbess Manshin briefed them on the efforts put in by FGS in the promotion of harmony in the local community. Christchurch had experienced a series of tragedies, from the great Canterbury Earthquake, to the mosque shootings, and to the Covid-19 pandemic, all of which had caused an erosion in the confidence of the people. Holding strongly to the teachings of Humanistic Buddhism, FGS South Island had organised mega events such as ‘2020 Coffee and Chocolate Festival’ and ‘2020 Project Vege ‘A’ Vegefest’ to promote close interactions among people, and in so doing, to reinforce people’s confidence in socialising with one another. The visitors were full of praises for the services rendered to the Community by FGS South Island, and they hoped that FGS South Island will continue to organise more activities that are beneficial to the Community so that it can head towards more harmonious developments.