Sunday, July 18, 2010

Residents appeal for a Buddhist temple


It was about one in the afternoon and was raining heavily in Bukit Tinggi, Klang. But it did not deters a group of residents from the Bandar Bukit Tinggi housing estate to come out in umbrellas to put across their appeal to the Selangor state government to allocate a piece of land in the area for a Buddhist temple to be built there. The devas must be shedding tears of support for a Buddhist vihara in Bandar Bukit Tinggi!

In that area, a piece of land with the size about 28,000 sq ft has been designated for use to build a place of worship for the non-muslims. A local Buddhist organisation, the Mudita Buddhist Society has submitted application in early 2009 for that piece of land to enable the society to build a Buddhist temple. Considering that nearly 70% of residents in the surrounding areas are of the Buddhist faith, it is not too much too ask for a place of worship to be built there. Furthermore, within the vicinity there is not even one Buddhist temple to serve the spiritual and religious education needs of the Buddhist community.

Buddhist community in Malaysia are usually quite subtle in approaching the government for land to build temples or solving issues related to their religion. For a group of residents to come out in the rain to request the government to listen to their needs, this must be a matter of serious concern to them and close to their heart.

Therefore the Selangor state government are strongly urged to consider approving the land application by the Mudita Buddhist Society so that the religious needs of the community will be taken care of. The people already spoken, what say the state government? - Loka

Friday, July 9, 2010

Is Buddhist population declining in Malaysia

Basing on the report on the National Population Census 2000, Malaysian citizens of the Buddhist faith comprised 20.2% of the total citizens of the country.

The National Population Census 2010 was launched this week and enumerators are going from house to house to conduct the census. When the census are over and report published, what will be the number of Buddhists in this country? Will it increased, reduced or remained the same? If the percentage increases, will it be due to natural procreation amongst the Buddhist populace or the results of persistent missionary activities by Buddhist groups in the country.

But if the percentage drops, what will be the reasons that causes the number of Buddhists in Malaysia declining? Maybe Buddhist parents did not teaches their children their own religion? Or the Buddhist monks, nuns and lay preachers did not work hard enough for the last ten years? Or the loss of the followers due to conversion to other religions or they just declared themselves as not adhering to any religion.

If the percentage and total reduces due to the possibility of more people declaring themselves as no-religion or atheist, then the situation can be serious enough for all stake haolders in the Buddhist community to do the necessary to educate these Buddhist-by-birth to know more about their own religion.

As the national population census report will be used as a reference to help the government to plan for the country development in different sectors, the numbers of Buddhists in the country will be taken into consideration when the federal and state governments deliberate on the need of the community. This is especially so in matters related to the allocation of religious land and also financial allocation to built and maintain Buddhist temples.

As numbers speaks for itself, it is therefore very urgent and most important for all Buddhist temples and centres in the country to urge their devotees and those once-a-year (Wesak) Buddhists to declare themselves as Buddhists in the census form. - Loka