The K.L. branch of Than Hsiang Foundation celebrated its tenth Anniversary with a Vegetarian Banquet in October. We have also planted the seeds for more branches to be set up in other parts of Malaysia in 2004.

Religious
We organized a nine-day Amitabha Recitation Retreat in November; nearly 200 participants took part in this retreat. A nine-day Mani Mantra Recitation Puja was led by His Eminence Druwang Rinpoche in December. Please refer to reports on these for details.

We also conducted two sessions each of a twelve session courses on ‘Stages of the Path to Buddhahood’ for our residents, staff and members in Mandarin and English in Penang. A condensed version was also conducted in Mandarin in K.L. The purpose of this course is to impart good Dharma knowledge with emphasis on application in our daily lives.

We continued to conduct weekly cultivation sessions both in Penang and K.L. Monthly Eight- precept retreat was conducted on every second Sunday of every month. Special religious ceremonies were held during Chinese New Year and Ching Ming. Wesak and Filial Piety Dharma Assemblies were conducted both in Penang and K.L. We also conducted a Three-day Retreat for University and College students.

Education
The International Buddhist College gained official recognition from the Ministry of Education in Thailand. We held the first council meeting of the College on December12, 2003. Professor Prasert and Venerable Professor Dhammajoti were elected as Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Council; Professor Udom Warotamasikkhadit was appointed the Rector.

We continued to conduct courses of Buddhist Studies of IBUC in Penang. In Hatyai, Thailand we have about 100 students studying English.

Training camps for students of different age groups were organised. In October the Thai Foundation organized a camp for school students in K.L.. In Penang, we organised a secondary school student camp in May, a kindergarten student camp in September and a primary school student camp in November. We are very grateful to the volunteers of these camps for helping to ensure the success and smooth running of these camps. These camps were conducted with one common theme in mind which was to instill gratefulness to parents and teachers.

Our Sunday Schools in Penang and Hatyai continued to conduct classes for students and parents. Many teachers and volunteers of the Sunday School became active members of our Youth Groups both in Penang and Hatyai.

The kindergarten also continued to make good progress with better curriculum and good team spirit among our teachers.

We also started three student houses and called them Kalyana Mitra House. They are located near U.S.M. and TAR College in Penang and U.P.M. in Serdang.

Welfare
Wan Ching Yuen Centers in Penang and P.J. continued to operate with more staff to cater for the aging residents. We are sorry to lose some of the residents who had been staying with us for many years; the Wan Ching Yuen Centers serves as a good place to contemplate impermanence.

The Metta Free Clinic, which operates in collaboration with the Metta Welfare Association, continued to provide daily services by Chinese physicians while volunteer doctors operate the western clinic sessions every Tuesday evening. However the operation of this clinic was later changed to Saturday afternoons. We also organized 2 screening sessions and a blood donation session. The number of visiting patients exceeded 11,000 for the year.

The Mitra Welfare Centres in Penang and K.L. also continued to serve those who needed our help. The face to face counseling cases in Penang made a dramatic increase upon the return of two of our staff who attended a course in Australia.

Building
Phase one of the construction of the International Buddhist University in Southern Thailand made good progress. Three of the buildings are targeted to be completed to enable us to move in by June 2003.

Publication
The ICT group started to publish e-zines in Chinese and English on the first and sixteenth of every month. The K.L. web site was also launched together with the installation of Venerable Chuan Chao as the Superintendent of Tham Wah Wan Temple.

Once again, I would like to thank all donors of Than Hsiang Fund – please refer to the separate financial report.

May all beings be well and happy!