In loving memory of Man Wong, one of the founders of the Buddhist Council of Western Australia
Remembering Man Wong by John Waite.
Man Wong passed away on 17th September 2026.
On Hearing that Man Wong has passed on: starting the Buddhist Council of WA.
In 2004 I was Director of Hayagriva Buddhist Centre when one day I had a call from Sol Hanna, President of the Buddhist Society of Western Australia about whether we should create a Buddhist Council in Perth: I was very keen and discussed needing someone from the Chinese Buddhist community. Man Wong turned out to be that representative from the Fo Guan Shan temple in Maylands. We met up and discussed some basic ideas agreeing that initially we should work together with each other to ensure that we came up with a model that most Buddhist traditions would be happy with, that adhered to the original teachings. Many meetings happened over several months either in our different temples or often at Man Wong’s home. We wrote a draft constitution, looking at what had been done elsewhere by similar organisations. We tested the draft against any problem we thought might arise trying to build strong protections into the draft while keeping it open to the wider Buddhist community. We sort guidance from several teachers with Ven Ajahn Brahm being very supportive.
The next stage was putting our ideas out to as many other Buddhist groups in Perth as we could reach. Just this exercise alone was very informative as we hadn’t quite realised how many temples there were.
We had a series of meetings with the involvement of those groups who were showing an interest at different temples trying to share the energy around. Man Wong was actively involved in all this process, contributing in many different ways that were much appreciated.
It was a real growth opportunity being part of this process, I really appreciated Man Wong’s and Sol Hanna’s skills, knowledge of their traditions and teachings as well as their dedication.
The council finally held its first meeting, adopting the constitution in 2005. We have a lot of valuable work to do still and it will be on going with the participation of all the Buddhist Temples in Western Australia. The works that Man Wong contributed to the council will always be appreciated.
