Wesak Day 2009

The night before Wesak Day , I was flipping my street directory book on Buddhist temple in Subang area. To my surprised, I found none of the temple is in Subang, but there is one in Bandar Utama-Chempaka Buddhist Lodge . I located the area and I drove there early in the morning at around 7.30 a.m. I reached there quarter past 8 . Upon reaching the site , I noticed there are cars at the shoulders of the road leading to the temple . Temple is located at the end of the housing estate. I hastily found an empty space next to a corner house in a back alley . As I walked towards the temple , more and more cars were arriving . Entering the gate of the temple , there are lots of activities happening in the temporary stalls which includes charity offering , bathing the Buddha and blessing from the monks .

After bathing the Buddha , I entered the main temple which consisted of 3 floors ,LG,1st floor, 2nd floor. On the 1st floor is the main shrine , the intricate designs of the statute of Buddha and the simple but elegant decoration mesmerized me . I participated in the blessing ceremony and hymm singing until noon. The sense of familiarity I experienced before when I was small came back to me . I still remember those days when I followed the hymm singing and I was still too young to be able to recognize the Chinese words on the chanting book .

On the 2nd floor, there are also different types of deities and Buddha statues in separate rooms.
After the prayers , I was told by the monk that there was a vegetarian lunch to be served . As I climbed down the stairs to LG, I was startled to see the whole hall was full with people . I was in the line queuing for my turn . The situation was very under control although there were lots of people . I sit together with a family of 7 , and we were served with vegetarian 盆菜 and vegetable curry. As I never in my life eaten a vegetarian 盆菜 , I tried and I felt that taste of the pork cutlet was almost the same as the real ones . I like the meat balls very much especially with the savory taste of broth incorporated into the meat balls, as my first bite , I can feel the broth oozed out from the meat. I was very satisfied with the meal and I called it a day .

vegetarian 盆菜


Full of crowd.

I felt that I have fulfilled my ‘duty’ as Buddhist followers.

The full address of the Buddhist is:
Chempaka Buddhist Lodge
60,Jln SS23/25,Taman SEA,
Petaling Jaya,
www.chempaka.org.my



A female newscaster was recording for NTV7 channel.