Buddhism & Homosexuality Forum

The Young Buddhist Association of Malaysia (YBAM) and Buddhist Research Society of Malaysia (BRSM) held a seminar titled "Homosexuality: The Controversy in the Midst of Morality and Social Value" on Aug 19 in Kuala Lumpur.

about 200 people attended the open forum which had three panelists: Venerable Miao Jan, the coordinator of Prajna Meditation Association of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor; Datuk Ang Choo Hong, the president of the Buddhist Research Society of Malaysia; and Yap Hock Heng, a registered and licensed counsellor. The forum was emceed by YBAM secretary general See Chan Wing.

The news of the traditional Chinese wedding of Malaysia’s first lesbian couple and the upcoming same-sex marriage of Malaysian Christian Pastor, Rev. Ouyang Wen Feng to be celebrated in Malaysia has caused a stir in Malaysian society, drawing criticisms particularly from Christian groups. However, the coordinator of Prajna Meditation Association of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, the Venerable Miao Jan, encouraged gay people to face their own sexual orientation honestly and openly, urging them to come out bravely and not live in the closet [literally dark corners].

Ven. Miao Jan pointed out that she was not promoting the gay culture. But in her opinion, if gay people did not live honestly with their sexuality, they would fall in love with the wrong person someday, which would lead to pain not only for themselves, but also for their loved one(s).

“Let gay people talk about their love life. We could only respect them and learn how to get along with them.” “I have a lot of gay friends too. Don’t treat them as though they are horrible people. They are also fun to be with and they are such lovable people. Besides, how does this present a problem to non-gay people?”

When asked whether gay people adopting children would create social problem, she did not answer the question squarely, but turned the question around and asked: “How much happiness can straight families today guarantee their children? The divorce rate is high these days, and this should give us room for thought."

She feels that many people in society create too many assumptions about homosexuals/homosexuality, speculating that if everyone is homosexual, human kind will become extinct. She retorts: Do you think everyone will want to become a monk/nun/ordained ? Once homosexuality becomes recognised/accepted, will everyone become homosexual?

Datuk Ang Choo Hong said he treats gay people as normal. Gay people have long existed since the time of Buddha. He said if people could not bless Rev. Ouyang’s marriage, then they should keep quiet.

Yap Hock Heng was more concerned with the attitude that people have towards a gay person. Are they friendly? Are they willing to be in a gay person’s company? Are they willing to listen to their story and guide them?

He said that the fact that the media reported heavily on same-sex marriage would not encourage the gay culture [turn more people gay]. Rather, it would cause people who are already gay to come out of the closet.

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Face Changing Boy From A Children's Home

Suresh Subramaniam, a 20 year of Indian-Chinese parentage from the Ti-Ratana's Children Home, Malaysia has made the home proud by being the first non-chinese to master the ancient Chinese art of Face Changing.

Ti-Ratana is a welfare society founded by Buddhist monk, Chief Rev. K.Dhammaratana in 1994. Suresh is one of the earliest resident of the Children Home. Suresh who is currently a student of 3D Animation in a local college, has keen interest in magic.

Noting Suresh’s keen interest in magic, Ti-Ratana Welfare Society vice-president Tan Thim Huat suggested that he learn the art of face-changing, and got in touch with a Chinese face-changing master from Sichuan, China.

“I went for an interview with Master Men Wei, who happened to be in Malaysia at that time. The interview was necessary for the master to evaluate a person’s potential and interest,” “Master Men agreed to accept me as a student when he saw my potential. The fact that I’m half-Indian made me unique, too.”

Suresh underwent six months of intensive training, during which he learnt the basics of mask-changing – such as walking, posing and body posture – from his master.

“The training was really tough. It called for a lot of initiative and interpretation on my part. There were times when I felt like giving up, but I persevered,” said Suresh, who had to make a daily two-hour trip via public transport to train at a studio in Cheras, KL.

“My caregivers at Ti-Ratana, as well as my mother and sister, gave me a lot of encouragement and support.”
Though each of Master Men’s students had to cough up RM12,000 for a face-changing course, Suresh was given a fee waiver due to his circumstances. He only had to pay for the costume and masks which were imported from China.

“I use nine to 10 masks for each performance. Every mask has its own characteristics and expression. A red mask could represent anger, while a white mask may depict cunning. However, it is up to the artiste to make his own interpretation of each character.”

“Master Men stressed that a face-changer’s poses and ability to interact with the crowd are important,” said Suresh, adding that his martial art and dance skills gave him an edge.

He reveals that his pre-performance routine includes practising proper breathing techniques, meditating, warming-up exercises and not eating heavy meals to enable him to stay focused. He also has to ensure that he is well-hydrated before and after each performance.

Besides regular practice, Suresh frequently observes other mask changers and opera performers in order to develop his skills and ensure that he does not duplicate their movementsSuresh is proud that he is Malaysia’s first Indian face-changing performer, and gets a thrill each time he reveals his face to the audience.

His first public performance was at a Ti-Ratana Welfare Society event in December 2009.

Suresh has since performed at various events in the Klang Valley, and will be taking his show to Johor, Perak and Singapore soon.

“I want to create my own identity by personalising my performances from next year onwards,” said the enterprising young man. “I try to ‘Malaysian-ise’ my performance while staying true to its Chinese roots. I’m toying with the idea of adding modern elements to appeal to the younger crowd.”

“We encourage the children to find their own potential. The society helped to fund Suresh’s training. We hope his efforts will inspire other children at the home to do well in life,” said Tan, noting that Suresh is gaining popularity through word of mouth.

More about Ti-Ratana Welfare Society, visit their official website here

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World Buddhist Conference

Photo gallery - World Buddhist Conference 2010 which was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from September 25 - September 26.

(Source : WBC )

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Controversial Festive Ad

In a few days time, Muslims around the world will celebrate the Eid festival. In Malaysia, some section of the Muslims felt offended by a festive ad aired on TV. Yesterday, the TV station apologized to the Muslims during prime time news and stopped airing the ad.

The offended Muslims claimed that the ad, depicting an old Muslim man riding a flying trishaw was influenced by Christianity ( Santa Claus riding flying reindeers ) and the lotus flowers and the lamps were more linked to Buddhism and Hinduism than Islam.

Watch the controversial ad below

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Buddhism For The Deaf

Let's learn some terms relevant to Buddhism using sign language.



The above video is just a short clip of a Buddhist VCD for the deaf produced by the Dharma For The Deaf Society, Malaysia which was launched last year. More clips are available on Youtube.

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A Collector Of Buddhist Stamps

A Buddhist and stamps collector has been integrating his faith with his interest as he has a special preference for collecting stamps with Buddhism theme.

Shu Zhonghan from Malaysia has sorted out thousands of the stamps he collected according to the themes such as the Four Great Bodhisattvas, the Four Great Buddhist Mountains, Buddhist figures and the biography of Gautama Buddha. Each of the theme has lots of stories to tell.

The stamps he collected are from around the world such as China, Japan, Korea, India, Thailand and even Muslim countries which possess different Buddhist cultures.
To enhance the value of appreciation of the stamps, he has put them with envelopes, pictures and postcards as embellishments or explanatory notes. It has at the same time enhanced the value of artistic for his collection.
He does not only collect them in stamp albums but he also shows them to the public through exhibitions .He also takes the opportunity to tell his guests Buddhist stories.

Shu has been a Buddhist since young and he started collecting stamps since teen age. At that time, his attention was drawn by a Buddhist stamp on an envelope sent by his relative from China.

At that time, stamp collecting experts suggested that it would be an advantage to collect stamps based on a particular theme instead of collecting a wide-variety of stamps. Therefore he has focused on only Buddhist stamps since then as he is a Buddhist.

He indicated that among thousands of the stamps, it was indeed hard to categorize them. However, with the assistance of his three daughters, he was able to get relevant information for each of the theme.

According to him, as he is a preacher, he had organized two stamp exhibitions to promote Buddhism to the public and they received great responses from the public.
Nevertheless, he stressed that according to the national standards, there were some rules to be followed while collecting stamps such as a stamp must have more pictures and less text and three stories to be told on a piece of paper. He said that his collection has not met the requirements yet.

Therefore, he is currently striving to upgrade his collection to the international standard with the guidance of Malaysia Stamps Association and the assistance of his friends who lend him their stamp collections for reference.
He is also planning to translate the theme of his stamps into English as he would like to share the Buddhist stamps with more people at his international stamp exhibitions in the future.

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Religious Tolerance In Malaysia ?

This is a news article taken from a Malaysia online news portal, The Malaysian Insider in response to a news report published in another newspaper.

Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr. Wee Ka Siong passed the buck to the Klang High School administration today, claiming that it had misinterpreted a 10-year old education circular on formations of non-Muslim societies. He was responding to a newspaper report that the school had ordered the closure of non-Muslim societies.

Wee said that the education circular which was set up in December 16, 2000 by the Director-General of Education stated that schools which have already set up non-Muslim societies prior to the creation of the circular need not obtain permission from the state education department.

The Deputy Education Minister said that schools which formed the non-Muslim societies after the circular had been enforced needed to obtain permission from the state education department.

“On December 16, 2000, a circular was issued by the DG of education for schools that already have this set up of Buddhist society, Christian societies… they can continue this practice, for them they need not ask for permission.

“At the same time, schools that formed the non-muslim societies after the circular was issued, need to get clearance from state education department,” said Wee.

Wee told The Malaysian Insider that he had already spoken to the state education director as well as the D-G about the matter, and the school’s non-Muslims societies are now free to operate under normal high school guidelines.

“I have spoken to the director-general of education, as well as the state education director. It is a misinterpretation. It’s a non-issue.

“The problem here is this school’s administration is perhaps too new, they went and asked permission from the state education department just to see whether they had approval or not.

“The school administration has already been notified. We have asked the state education director to rectify the situation immediately,” said Wee.

The MCA Youth Chief stressed that Klang High School need not seek permission from the Selangor education department because it was “not a new school.”

“The guidelines are clear. For schools which already have non-Muslim societies prior to the circular, it should just stick with the status quo.
“This particular school has been there for 40-50 years. Unless it’s a new school, you do not have to list down the societies,” explained Wee.

However, the Deputy Education Minister declined to provide an explanation on why schools which were registered after the year 2000 had to list non-Muslim societies.

“There is some contention, there is some issue, but I cannot tell you now lah,” Wee told The Malaysian Insider.
The Sun reported yesterday that non-Muslims societies at the Klang High School had been ordered to be dissolved by the school administration.

According to the report, the school’s Kelab Agama Hindu, Kelab Agama Buddha and the Christian Union were dissolved two weeks ago.

The union had been in existence since 1969.

The above issue wasn't a serious one , it was just an isolated 'mis-intrepration' ( not ruling out it was done intentionally ) of a government policy but what irk many non-Muslims is that 'why even the need of this policy ?' ( refer to the paragraph in bold ). Incident like the above might be isolated but other racist acts and utter of racist remarks are common in fully government schools throughout Malaysia.

Malaysia is always perceived as a progressing and an ideal multi-racial country but in reality it is not as 'nice' as it should be. Race and religoin are two very sensitive topics in Malaysia. In recent years, race and religious tolerance is being slowly being eroded in Malaysia, no thanks to various discriminative and government policies.

A few recent incidents can attest to this.

Last year, the government banned the use of the word "Allah" in Christian bibles and publications eventhough it is a known fact that the word "Allah" is a general term for "God" and has been used in the Muslim middle east for ages. The real native people of Malaysia are mostly Christians and they use bible which is written in the Malay language. This controversy is still not solved and it has led to the burning of several churches in the country earlier this year. Some states even banned the used of several terms by non-Muslims such as the Muslim greetings of ' asalamu....... '.

Last year too, a group of angry Muslims carried a cow's head in protest of the building of a hindu temple near their houses ( actually not that near ). This was meant to offend and to desecrate the Hindus because cows are very sacred in Hinduism.
. In the same year, two Muslims from a Muslim magazine disguised as Catholics to participate in a church ceremony to investigate the rumors of a group of Muslims also attending the church. It turned out to be just rumors. These Muslims left the church after committing a desecrating act. A police report was lodged by offended Christians but eventually the case was deemed solved after a lame apology from the magazine. Read more on this here

In a race/religious controversies, the government always take a stance in favour of the Malay Muslims fearing that anything than that would caused them to lose the support of the majority Malay Muslims.

In comparison with Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country in the world, Indonesia is moving forward after the 1990s race riot but Malaysia is taking a few steps backward. From my personal experience, Indonesians identify themselves as Indonesian first above their race/religion but in contrast, race/religion come above everything else.

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A Convert's Regret

Today's post is about this 54 years old Malaysian man who converted to Islam 10 years ago. He was born and brought up in Buddhist environment. He works in the government service. According to him, he was influenced by his friends to convert to Islam. This is not suprising because in Malaysia, more about 90% of the government staff are the Malay Muslims. He was probably one of the very few or perhaps the lone non-Muslim in his work place at that time.

He is single and has been disowned by his family due to his conversion. Now he wants to convert out of Islam and returns to Buddhism. According to him, he has always been following the Buddhist faith even after his conversion to Islam. Unfortunately for him, it is next to impossible for him to convert out of Islam, never mind if one who calls himself a Muslim but never live a life as a Muslim at all. He will have to face the uphill task of going to the Sha'ria court ( Islamic court ) to file a case to revert his conversion. He will also most probably has to do it alone without a lawyer because no lawyer ( must be a Muslim ) would want to take up his case, fearing possible intimidation from other Muslims.

In Malaysia, majority of the non-Muslims who convert to Islam, do it for the purpose of getting married with their Muslims partners. The laws in Malaysia require a non-Muslim MUST convert to Islam before allowed to marry a Muslim ( foreigners are not excempted ). It's like buying a one way ticket because once converted, he/she has almost no chance to convert out from Islam for whatever reasons at all. The only very rare case where a Muslim convert was allowed to leave Islam happened in 2008 ago where a local Chinese woman was allowed to leave Islam and returned to Buddhism. She converted to Islam in order to marry her Iranian boyfriend then but decided to leave the religion after her marriage failed.

In Malaysia, there has been several controversies over Islam conversion in the past. There were cases where men converted without the knowledge of their famiiies ( fearing rejection by family ). The families only came to know about this conversion after they died when the Islamic authority snatched their bodies from their mourning and shocked families to be buried according to Islamic rites.

Most recently, it involves a case where a Hindu man converted not only himself but all his young children without the permission of the mother. Read this case here

As for the man above, if it was true that he has been a Buddhist all this while, then he had made the biggest mistake of his life. He claimed that ( in the video ) that at the time of his conversion he was young ( supposedly an immature decision ) but at 44 then, he was definitely not young but old enough to make a wise decision. I believe the reason why he wanted to leave Islam is because he is still single and will be retiring in a year time and has started to feel lonely. He now wants to return to his family but his family refuse to accept him. Well, good luck to him. He'll need lots of that.

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Monk Saves Banyan Trees

Recently two Banyam tress were given new lives by a monk in Malaysia. The two trees both aged 40 were uprooted by a developer. The developer contacted a monk from the Dharma Buddhist University in Bentong, Malaysia and offered the monk the two trees. Without much hesitation, the monk accepted the trees. Both the trees were then transported from Kuala Lumpur to the partially completed Buddhist University which is built within next to a threatened rainforest.

The chief monk of the university said that continue logging activities has exposed a bare hill next to the temple. He vows to protect the forest. The university is taking effort to plant trees in the area. For the past three years, it has planted 10000 trees there. At present the university is surrounded by old trees, new trees, herbs gardens and flowers which offers a peaceful ambience to the students there.

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Vesak In Malaysia

Vesak Day celebration is held every year in the Maha Vihara Buddhist temple in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This year the celebration was graced by the attendance of Prime Minister of Malaysia ( a Muslim ). He is the 3rd PM of Malaysia to ever attended a Vesak celebration. The temple also had the presence of British celebrity chef, Gordon Ramsay who prepared a dish of mixed vegetables and milk rice for the PM. It was reported that there was a little commotion in the temple this morning when reporters and photographers as well as visitors rushed to take a glimpse at the chef upon seeing him standing waiting for the PM at one corner.

A Malaysian Buddhist song titled " Wesak Dawn " which was first released in the mid 80s

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Buddhist Personality : Yang Wei Han

Name : Yang Wei Han
Nationality : Malaysia
Date Of Birth : 1971
Profession : Singer / Stage Actor

He started his singing career in 1997 but today is more known as a stage actor/singer than a pop singer. In 1999 he landed a lead role in a musical, Siddharta playing the role of Lord Buddha. Playing that role for 10 years has greatly influenced his religious life. He is more knowledgeable on Buddhism now and has become a vegetarian.







Siddhartha The Musical premiered in 1999 and has since being performed 45 times in 4 countries Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and South Africa, the last was last year in Malaysia to celebrate it's 10th anniversary. Just for this blog, i sent an email to the company that produced this musical to enquire about the next show. They replied me that they would inform me when the time comes. If you happen to have a chance to watch this musical in future, don't miss it.

Rehearsal photos ( during their last performance in Malaysia in 2009 )

















Promotional videos of the musical ( for last year performance in Malaysia )

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Outstanding Women In Buddhism 2010

In conjunction with this year UN's International Women's Day, 11 women will be honoured by the Outstanding Women In Buddhism for their contributions to the advancement of Buddhism and spiritual life of women. The awards presentation ceremony will be held at the Association for the Promotion of the Status of Women in Don Muang, Thailand on the March 5, 2010.


1. Bhiksuni Dr Zhiru Ng ( Singapore )
Bhiksuni Dr Zhiru Ng is an associate professor and chair of Religious Studies at Pomona College in California. An expert in Mahayana Buddhism in China, her interdisciplinary research includes the Dizang cult of the mediaeval Chinese period, or the Tzu Chi movement of the modern age.

2. Bhikkhuni Dhamma Vijjani ( Thailand )
A former architect, Bhikkhuni Dhamma Vijjani, 51, teaches meditation at her retreat centre, Dhamma Abode, in Uthai Thani province. Fluent in English, French and German, she is also active in many translation projects for Buddhism.


3. Maechee Aree Kieatthubthew ( Thailand )
Maechee Aree Kieatthubthew, 50, is a well respected meditation teacher. Her positive approach to life, as well as her excellence in teaching meditation and yoga have brought her international reputation. Now, Maechee Aree lives and practises in the northeast of Thailand on a mountain, along with other female practitioners.


4. Ms Sato ( Japan )
Ms Sato is now raising five children at a small temple in the mountains of her hometown, and uses her spare time to paint, write books and compose music to celebrate the peaceful spirit of Buddhism. Her paintings have been displayed at the Olympic Museum in Xiamen City, China.


5. Asst Prof Nartruedee Dendoung ( Thailand )
Asst Prof Nartruedee Dendoung, 54, teaches Health Sociology and Feminism at the Faculty of Social Sciences & Humanities at Mahidol University. She has also been active in policy advocacy for gender equality, as well as being personally engaged in many projects to improve the health and livelihoods of marginalised women and children in remote areas.

6. Bhiksuni Dr Karuna Dharma ( US )
Bhiksuni Dr Karuna Dharma was ordained in 1976, making her the first fully-ordained woman in the US. Together with her teacher, Vietnamese Bhiksu Dr Thich Thien-An, they have established the International Buddhist Meditation Centre in Chua Vietnam - the first Vietnamese/US temple - as well as the University of Oriental Studies. She is also a founding president of Sakyadhita, an organisation that supports the revival of Theravada Bhikkhuni ordination. An abbess of the International Buddhist Meditation Centre, she has written several books on Buddhism and is active in inter-faith and inter-sectarian Buddhist work.


7. Bhiksuni Ming Yu ( Taiwan )
After many years of sharing Buddhist teachings with youths as well as counselling juvenile prisoners, Bhiksuni Ming Yu was fully ordained in 2006. Given her long-standing dedication and high integrity, she was elected as president of the Taipei Bodhi Buddhist Society, and later as the secretary-general of the Chinese Young Buddhist Association.


8. Dr Tashi Choedron ( Malaysia )
Dr Tashi Choedron, an environmental sociologist and Tibetan Buddhist nun, has coordinated several social development/sustainable livelihood projects for indigenous communities. She balances her spiritual life with volunteer work in service of conservation and Buddhism. She has written two books and several articles on community-based conservation.


9. Dr Varaporn Chamsanit ( Thailand )
Dr Varaporn Chamsanit conducts research and has written extensively on women in Buddhism in Thailand, as well as on human rights for the marginalised. Apart from being acting director of the Office of Human Rights Studies & Social Development at Mahidol University, Dr Varaporn is also a board member of the Foundation for Women and the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women.


10. Supaporn Asavachaichan, Thailand
Supaporn Asavachaichan teaches Buddhist economics at Silpakorn University and is highly respected for her use of Buddhist perspectives to analyse the roots of economic problems, particularly the current global economic crisis.


11 Vanerath Sornprasit ( Thailand )
Born and raised in southern Thailand, Vanerath Sornprasit taught at university level and became a business woman before being ordained as a white-robed nun in her quest to seek the true meaning of life. After finding the answers in the teachings of the late philosopher, Krishnamurti, she returned to a lay life, co-founded the Anveekshana Foundation to disseminate Krishnamurti's works, as well as set up the Stream Garden Retreat in the lust woods as a place for group and individual contemplation.

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