Presenting a birthday wish to His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn Phra Vajiraklaochaoyuhua, the Ling Jiou Mountain Buddhist Society (LJM) hosted activities of tree planting and cleaning the palace of Buddhas in July endorsed by officials of the Thailand Trade and Economic Office and New Taipei City government. Executive Director Mr. Twekiat Janprajak of the Thailand Trade and Economic Office and his colleagues visited the LJM on July 4, worshiping the three golden buddhas at the Shen Shan Temple and cleaning the palace of the Buddhas. In the company of Director Lee Wen of New Taipei City government’s Agriculture Bureau, his deputy Chan Hsi-Huei, and Director Ker Chien-Huei of Gongliao District, Mr. Twekiat Janprajak and his fellow workers also planted saplings of Arius (Podocarpus costalis) at the Monastery. They dedicated the merit to the king of Thailand’s well-being and sustainability of Mother Earth. 

July 4th, 2023 marked a fine day with clear sky when the activities took place. The visitors and LJM monastics planted saplings of highly precious and indigenous Arius and sprinkled the young plants with blessed water in the hope that they would take deep rooting and grow into big, sturdy trees to help restore the Earth’s vitality.

The visitors were greeted and accompanied by Sheng Shan Temple supervisor Master Ken Huei, Master Miao Yung, Master Jing Nien, and Master Xing Yueh of the LJM Religious Affairs Committee in paying homage to the three golden Buddhas. They then cleaned the palace of the Buddhas following the Thai Buddhist traditions as a gesture to pre-celebrate Thai King’s birthday. Upon finishing lunch, the visitors took a ride up the mountains to visit the LJM Wu Sheng Monastery to call on its Founding Abbot Master Hsin Tao.

The LJM enjoys a strong tie and deep bonding with Thailand. The three golden Buddhas worshiped at the Sheng Shan Temple - Phra Phuttha Chinarat, Buddha Pha Shinashi, and Buddha Phata Sarsda - originated in Thailand but they were worshiped in different places and never managed to join one another at the same place and time: two had been at the Thai palace, with the third always away from the royal court. The idea of gathering them up as a special and precious gift set to the LJM was endorsed by the late Thai King, the great Bhumibol Adulyadej, bestowed by the Supreme Patriarch of Thailand, and supported by the then Thai premier for the plan to reach fruition. The three golden Buddhas at the Sheng Shan Temple have thus become a symbol of homeland and comfort to Thai expatriates in Taiwan that exceed 70,000 in number.

April 13-15 marks the Songkran festival for new year celebrations in Thailand and large areas throughout southeast Asia, and the LJM Golden Buddha of Fortune is a regular feature of the Songkran celebrations in Taiwan for people to bathe the Buddha for blessings. The strong ties between the LJM and Thailand are much more than that. On December 29, 2013, the Shen Shan Temple hosted a memorial service for the late Supreme Patriarch of Thailand Nyanasamvara Suvaddhana, who passed away in October. The LJM and New Taipei City government launched a memorial series at the San Chong Stadium in honor of the great Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej when he left the world on October 13, 2016. In addition, in celebration of the birthday of Princess Srinagarindra, the Princess Mother of Thailand, a tree-planting ceremony was conducted at the Golden Buddha Gardens of the Sheng Shan Temple in October, 2020.

Master Hsin Tao has  been promoting the idea of Spiritual Ecology and the Life-&-Peace ideology by sparing no effort and long-term. The LJM 9-point declaration of its Loving-the-Earth campaign contains the principles of ‘peace, love, dialogue, veganism, recycle, frugality, reduction of carbon dioxide footprint, water conservation, and going green’, which the activity of tree-planting has just well embodied. 

Master Hsin Tao addressed the visiting delegation by highlighting that the Buddhist faith emphasizes compassion and peace, and both Thailand and Myanmar are basically Buddhist countries that live a Buddhist lifestyle that manifests the result of positive karma. For years now the Master has been focusing on the founding of the University for Life & Peace that runs on the core idea of ‘Loving the Earth, Loving Peace’ and will be Spiritual Ecology-centric in the running of its institution and teaching. Put succinctly, the University for Life & Peace will run on environmental protection for tactical implementation, while having Spiritual Ecology in its backbone for strategic manifestation. It promises to be a collective effort for sustainability. 

The New Taipei City Government Agriculture Bureau director pointed out that forestry marks the lungs of cities and New Taipei City’s green polity stipulates the planting of 40K saplings per annum, with planned tree-planting over the years to cover 76% of the municipal land area total, which puts New Taipei City as the top-ranking municipality in terms of plantation-covered land area. For the present occasion, young plants of the endangered Arius mark an outstanding example of the man-made effort to help restore ecology for sustainability.

Executive Director Mr. Twekiat Janprajak of the Thailand Trade and Economic Office expressed gratitude to the New Taipei City Government and LJM for helping to curate the celebratory activities. In particular, he admires Master Hsin Tao’s dedication to ecology born out of traditional Buddhist wisdom with a modern-day approach. He said that the late Thai King visited Taiwan to observe policy-making for agriculture, whereas the incumbent Thai King made known that there are wishes to benefit from Taiwan’s experience in environmental protection and ecological policy drafting. It can be expected that more exchanges between Taiwan and Thailand will take place in the areas of cultural affairs and religious exchanges.(Courtesy of LJM)

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