2016 CHCH Buddha’s Birthday Multicultural Festival
Fo Guang Shan (FGS) and Buddha’s Light International Association (BLIA) South Island New Zealand (NZ) organized the long awaited “2016 Buddha’s Birthday Multicultural Festival – Future and Hope Prayer Ceremony” on 14th of May at the FGS South Island NZ temple. After 3 years of constructions due to the Christchurch earthquake, the public could finally experience events happening from the temple temporarily. To celebrate this important day, all guests gathered in Christchurch to attend the Buddha Bathing Ceremony and witness the newly re-constructed temple. On this auspicious day, activities like the baby bathing ceremony, “Little Prince Exhibition”, Zen Tea, Sutra Copying, Buddha Bathing, Chinese-Western Medical Clinic and preparation of various vegetarian stalls were there to welcome around 800 guests that attended.
VIPs amongst the guests were Chinese Consul General in Christchurch – Jin Zhijian, NZ Police Road Policing Manager – Inspector Al Stewart, NZ Police National Ethnic Adviser – Inspector Rakesh Naidoo, Labour Party Member of Parliament for the Wigram electorate of the New Zealand Parliament – Dr Megan Wood, MP for Christchurch East – Poto Williams, Dean of Christchurch Cathedral Very Reverend Lawrence Kimberley from the Catholics, Venerable Geshe Nyima Dorjee from Tibetan Buddhism, Reverend Kathryn Walters from the Methodists, Priest Rick Loughan also representing the Catholics, Dr Surinder Tandon representing the Hindus with Ibrahim Abdelhalim representing the Muslims all attended this event and were warmly received by FGS Venerable Abbess Manshin, BLIA South Island NZ President and host for the event – Ms Seeshen Lee, BLIA North Island NZ Advisor – Dolly Tsai, President – Stephen Yu, BLIA South Island Advisor – John Lai with all BLIA NZ members.
Besides the solemn ceremony of sutra chanting in the Buddha’s Birthday Ceremony, representatives from many religions were also invited to say their blessings. Videos of the “2016 BLIA South Island Reports and Activities” and “Propagating the Dharma from Venerable Master Hsing-Yun” were then projected giving everyone a better understanding of the cultivation from FGS and BLIA. Later on, Inspector Al Stewart represented District Commander of Canterbury – Superintendent John Price in giving a speech, expressing a great feeling to be invited back to the temple, witnessing every building recovering in Christchurch. It is giving Christchurch a wonderful future and hope. Consul Zhijian also expressed gratitude to FGS as they are giving multicultural contributions around the globe and also sharing the Chinese culture to everyone. MP Poto Williams which came to the annual ceremony for the first time represented Hon. Ruth Dyson from the NZ Parliament of Port Hills said, that a 3 year course of repairing is a long journey, the temple will surely gain lots of love in the future. Inspector Rakesh then spoke of his mind where the scenes of the relieve work from the Christchurch earthquake were still fresh in his mind giving him an emotional moment, FGS, representing one of the religious ambassadors has made significant contribution to the community and also religious unity.
Venerable Abbess Manshin subsequently announced “We Are Back!”; FGS South Island will be re-opening in the near future welcoming everyone and continuing to serve the community. The abbess shared that FGS and BLIA are a part of New Zealand, Humanistic Buddhism is a part of New Zealand’s culture, no matter how difficult the challenge is, FGS and BLIA members will always be there to face it together with the people of New Zealand, bringing it together and growing together.
With that, President Seeshen Lee greeted everyone to visit the temple often. Feeling moved after 3 years of reconstructing, they can all finally be back to the temple, believing the future is filled with hope. The president in addition shared past year’s effort, where they not only kept the community clean and planted trees, members of BLIA South Island NZ had also distributed 1000 books of “366 days with Wisdoms” authored by Venerable Master Hsing Yun to the hotels of New Zealand.
The event continued in the afternoon with the Baby Blessing Ceremony where more than 70 babies accompanied with their parents, getting blessed by the abbess. Guests also experienced Zen Tea, sutra copying, Chinese and Western Medical Clinic, enjoyed the “Journey of Prince Siddhartha”, vegetarian food and multicultural shows. The excitement of the event hiked where Louis Brown of Christchurch won the lucky draw for an Aussie Return Ticket. She said, she felt honoured to be blessed by the Buddha in returning to the temple. Feeling of joy and excitement makes everyone wish that FGS South Island could host the Buddha’s Birthday Ceremony again year after year in the future. Besides that, all wished that serene and tranquil activities of the temple could also be organized to enrich the community.