Paying a visit to Rumah Sejahtera Jenjarom

Fourteen of us (consists of 4 BMSM Welfare committee, Sis. Lim Mee Sew, Mrs. Tang, Bro. Koy and Bro. Lim) in three cars paid a visit to Rumah Sejahtera Jenjarom (at Jln Norton, Jenjarom) on 2 January 2011. This old folk home is currently supported by Sis. Lim and Mrs. Tang's group who sponsor one lunch to the inmates every month. The lunch is catered by Restoran New Shiang Sze Lou (新湘子楼酒家）in Jenjarom. Sis. Lim told me that they were recommended by a temple in Jenjarom to support this home.

BMSM committee has approved to sponsor one lunch on 2/1/2011 in its meeting on 26/12/2010. However, the home caretaker told us the lunch had already been sponsored by someone, hence we sponsored the dinner instead.

The home is located at Jln Norton, Jenjarom. It takes care of 19 senior citizens, all male. Bro. Koy pointed out an interesting phenomenon in all the old folk homes we have visited (Ipoh, Raub, Klang, Kuala Lumpur, Kajang etc) which consist of predominantly male inmates.
Sis. Looi had a friendly chat with the caretaker of the home (the Indian man). He arranges meals to be prepared for the inmates and collect the food from the restaurant.
Interaction with the inmates of the home.
Group photograph
The restaurant that does the catering for us.

Participation in a Sanghikadana in Kuala Sawah Monastery

Bro. Wong Ong, Bro. Koy, Bro. Lim and five other friends participated in a Sanghikdadana in Kuala Sawah Monastery in Negeri Sembilan on 1 January 2011. The Ceremony started at around 9:00am. The program included dhamma talk and Q&A, chanting and blessing, offering of robes and requisites to the Sangha and ended with Sanghikadana. The abbot of the monastery, Ven. Cittamano had invited five monks from Penang to participate in this Sanghikadana.

The pagoda at Kuala Sawah Monastery. The Chinese name of the monastery is "静修居“. I forgot to check out its English name.

The monks' quarter

Dhamma talk at the shrine hall. The hall is quite big. Some section of the hall is used as dining hall. You can see that the wall of the hall is only half-height. The Sanghikadana ceremony

I found this magazine at the Kuala Sawah monastery. Its publication (which target Malaysian Buddhists) is sponsored by Original Buddhism Society (原始佛教会） in Taiwan to propagate Theravada Buddhism. The inaugural issue of this magazine was published in July 2010. The society is headquartered in Taipei, it has another centre in Taichung (Taiwan) and a centre in New York, USA. Through this magazine, I came to know that it has set up two centres （中道禅林） in Malaysia last year, one in Penang at 77-3, Lorong Selamat, 10400 Pulau Pinang and another in Ipoh at 61A & 61B, Jln Chung Ah Ming, 31650 Ipoh. Ven. Bhikku Vupasama (随佛法师）is the advisor of the Society. He conducted a series of Mandarin dhamma talks in November/December 2010 at Butterworth Buddhist Association, Seck Kiah Eeh in Malacca, its centre in Ipoh and Penang, and Chempaka Buddhist Lodge in Petaling Jaya.
After the sanghikadana, we invited the five venerables from Penang to visit Vihara Samadhi (located at Section U12, Bukit Raja Industrial Estate).
Group photograph with the five venerables in front of the multipurpose building at Vihara Samadhi. Ven. Pannasammi was standing in the fourth position from right. The construction of the building for the shrine hall is still in progress. We were told by the site engineer that it will be ready by April 2011.