In the morning of 4 February 2006, Wan Ching Yuen Centre resonated with the loud drumbeats and clashing of cymbals that heralded the beginnings of a lion dance. A pair of lions danced their way to the statue of Amitabha Buddha and paid their respects before dancing in front of the residents of Wan Ching Yuen.

On Sunday, 5 February 2006, the Multi-Purpose Hall started to fill with people attending the Chinese New Year Celebrations. Just before 2.00pm, Venerable Wei Wu greeted the Gun Teng Men lion dance troupe at the Temple's main entrance and led the pair of lions to the Great Compassion Hall (Dai Bei Dian) where the lions paid their respects to Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva and then distributed mandarin oranges to Venerable Wei Wu, Dato' Dr. Teng Hock Nam, Dato' and Datin Steven Ooi, Bro. Foo Kee Jean, Assistant Secretary of Than Hsiang Buddhist Welfare Association .

Sunday, 5 February 2006 marked an important date in the calendar of Than Hsiang Temple. This was the day when two laymen took the big step of renunciation from worldly life to follow the spiritual path towards Buddhahood. The two men were Ooi Han Chun and Teoh Chew Hooi. Bro. Ooi graduated from Universiti Sains Malaysia with a B.A. Hons. in Humanities and had been working in Than Hsiang since then. Bro. Teoh was born in Sungai Petani but went to a secondary school in Kuala Lumpur and graduated from a Canadian university. He is currently taking the B.A.

Buddhist Chinese New Year Celebration

Date: 5 February 2006, 2.00 p.m.

Venue:
Multi Purpose Hall, 5 th Floor
Than Hsiang Temple
132 Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah
11900 Bayan Lepas, Penang

On the night of Friday, 30 December 2005, about fifteen people of various ages met for a workshop on MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator). Most of them were volunteers of Mitra Welfare Centre and the others had come to know of this workshop through friends in the Mitra Welfare Centre.

Yew Lye Hin: Could you tell me about the Buddhist organization you are from?

Early at 8.30am on 10 January 2006, a large group of staff and volunteers gathered at the Hall of Great Compassion (Dai Bei Dian) to listen to a short talk by Venerable Wei Wu before the great spring cleaning of the year got underway. Venerable Wei Wu said that although it was traditional to do a big cleaning once a year, he advised everyone to do cleaning throughout the year so that not much dirt and rubbish would accumulate; else it would be a tough job in doing the spring cleaning.