Centre has biggest Guan Yin in SE Asia
KATHLEEN ANN KILI Nation 21 June 2016
KOTA TINGGI: A new Buddhist meditation centre, home to the largest Guan Yin statue in South-East Asia, has opened its doors to the public.
The 10.6m-tall golden statue is valued at over RM2mil. Housed at the Thekchen Choling Kota Tinggi Meditation Centre, the statue contains ancient relics, precious stones and prayer items which are over 1,000 years old.
Its spiritual director Namdrol Rinpoche said it took about a year to complete due to the detailed artwork of the statue known by its Tibetan name “Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara”.
It is adorned with pearls, corals, turquoise and prayer beads.
“The treasures inside the statue are priceless,” he said during the opening ceremony of the centre on Sunday.
Located in the small and remote Tai Hong village, the centre is an ideal place for prayers and meditative retreat.
“This centre will be a place for people to shut out from their busy and hectic lives and to awaken the spiritual nature in us, as we are becoming too wired up,” he said.
“This is why we chose to build the centre on the outskirts,” he said, adding that he had about 20,000 devotees in Malaysia and Singapore.
The centre features a large prayer hall, bedrooms for visiting lamas and retreat participants, amenities such as a kitchen, dining area and communal toilets.
“To benefit the local community, we plan to have free TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) consultation services and medicine as well as alternative healing such as reiki,” he said.
Reiki is a healing technique based on the principle that the therapist can channel energy into the patient by means of touch.
State Tourism Committee chairman Datuk Tee Siew Kiong said the meditation centre was likely to attract more tourists to Johor.
“We are hoping to see more visitors especially from Singapore, China, Nepal, India, Hong Kong as well as the United States,” he said.
He said the Guan Yin statue is believed to be the second largest in the world.
We gawk at huge temples and giant statues of deities with awe. But we often fail to take note of the immese spirituality that resides in each of our hearts.
Let not the cynicism and negativity breed within us.
Huge temple complexes and bejeweled statues are an outward manifestation of our desire for something greater within us. If crudely put, advertisement.
Let us rejoice and celebrate instead the collective effort of fellow Buddhist, big and small, each and every individual, all precious and important,who made it possible.
Let us be gracious and be grateful.
Rejoice.
Expedient methods are required to help Buddhism more accessbile to people from different backgrounds.