Kelmscott Buddhist Centre welcomes the Cambodian New Year
Saturday 13 April 2013 saw the Cambodian Buddhist Society of WA celebrating the Cambodian New Year in Perth. It was wonderful to see a Australians of all walks of life at the event which was well attended at their premises in Kelmscott.
Speech by Ms Tholla’ Chan (CBSWA President):
May I extend a very warm welcome to all our guests who come to share the joy of the Cambodian New Year’s Celebrations with us today.
I would like to mention a few interesting things that happened at our Temple during 2012.
In June 2012 we received a grant of $247,905 from Lotterywest to renovate the main house. We thank Lotterywest for giving us the much needed funds so that we can offer social services to the local community in this area. We lodged an application to the Shire of Armadale in July 2012 for a change of use from residence for monks to being a full Forest monastery, but we have not yet received an approval yet. Hopefully we will hear soon.
I would like to acknowledge Dennis Sheppard’s contribution in doing the architectural drawings of the renovation and also the car park for us. He did the drawings as a dana, free of charge. We thank him for his generosity.
We would also like to make mention of James Teoh, the surveyor for doing a professional surveying job of this property also free of charge. We thank him for his kindness.
Last year we worked closely with the BSWA in an interesting project in which we invited Ven. Amaranatho from England to stay at our Temple for several months. He conducted many personal development workshops here, which brought many people to our Temple.
Last month, we had a monk from Sri Lanka (Ven. Londoneye Dhammagavesi ) who gave an insight into Dhamma practice in our daily life. We thanked the Sri Lankan Dhamma friends who organised this event at our Temple for the benefits of many people.
Kahtina in November 2012: We raised $37,000 for our Temple.
We are very grateful to the Cambodian Buddhists in Melbourne who organized a Kathina to our Temple for the past 3 years, which helped to raise funds to help us to reduce the bank loan. We thank Mr Te Ang,one of the organizers who came from Melbourne to be with us today.
On this special occasion, we would like to bring to mind the people who have done special things for us in some ways. We send them our best wishes and warm greetings.
Our special thanks goes to Ajahn Brahm. He sends his apology for not being able to attend today’s ceremony. He sends 2 monks from Bodhiyanna Monastery to take part in the celebrations today. We are very grateful to Ajahn Brahm for his support and guidance. Our Temple could carry on its journey until now thanks to the great financial support from the BSWA and its Committee in 2010.
I would like to make mention of Mr. Doug Solomon, a Buddhist lawyer, whose spirit of generosity saved our Temple and we are now able to continue on our path as originally intended, that is, to establish a monastery based on the Forest Monastery Tradition which placed a strong emphasis on Sila, Sammadhi and Panna.
We also thank our bank for the generous support it has given us, without which we could not have survived until today.
We thank all our Dhamma friends especially those from Malaysian Buddhist group who have been bringing dana to our monks regularly during the year.
Finally, I would like to thank our meditation teacher, Zor Hane. He has been so generous with his time and effort to support our initiative in offering a meditation class since February 2011. His dedication to sharing his knowledge is really inspiring.
On behalf of the Cambodian community here, may I wish you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year.
