Books Collection for FGS's India Buddhist College

On the 28th of March, Christchurch City Council in association with several big bookstore franchises organized a book sale at the Pioneer Stadium, selling both new and secondhand books. Fitting in with BLIA's “Spreading love and wisdom, through a thousand miles to India“ agenda, the city council had cordially invited BLIA South Island to round up the leftover books at the end of the sale for free. Fo Guang Shan (FGS) South Island Supervisor Venerable Jue Xi, BLIA South Island President See Shen Lee, and the Vice President, and a few other BLIA members all volunteered to select the books for the benefit of the FGS’s India Buddhist College.

With a truly cooperative spirit, the BLIA members managed to sort through almost a thousand secondhand books that were of a decent quality, and packed them up properly, all within half an hour. The books will then be organized properly before being sent to the India Buddhist College via a shipping container.

Venerable Abbess Manshin established the “Spreading love and wisdom, through a thousand miles to India” agenda at the end of 2014 for the benefit of the India Buddhist College's library collection, so that students there have enough quality material to read and learn. Christchurch City Mayor Hon. Lianne Dalziel remarked on how meaningful this activity is and was happy that she could have assisted in providing this book source from the sale's remaining books, allowing BLIA members the opportunity to gather up as many books as possible in the shortest time possible.

Up until now, BLIA South Island has already gathered several thousand books of quality material, with genres ranging from literature, science and various other life topics. BLIA members are very pleased to be able to extend the collection of the FGS India Buddhist College’s library, giving young Indian teenagers the opportunities to read more, empowering them with to “Change their lives with knowledge”, which is a most meaningful cause indeed.