The Grand Shravasti Blessing Ceremony For World Peace 2020 (GSBC2020)

20 years ago, we organized a monumental event at National Stadium Bukit Jalil , Kuala Lumpur – whereby, for the first time, the chief monks of three main sects of Buddhism harmoniously hosted the Grand Blessing Ceremony for Millennium 2000. The event attracted approximately 50,000 local and foreign participants and raised RM380,000 to fund the humanitarian programs run by six legitimate non-profit organizations. We also successfully created a Guinness World Record by building the world’s largest Bean Art Collage (26.6m x 31.7m, 12 tonnes of beans) to promote world peace in conjunction with the event.

Introduction of the ancient Sharavasti

About 2,500 years ago, Shravasti was one of the six largest cities of India and served as the capital of the Kosala Kingdom. Not only this, it was also a prominent trading centre and center of religious activity by Lord Buddha.

According to the history of Buddhism, The Buddha first came to Shravasti at the urging of Anāthapiṇḍika, a prominent businessman who met the Buddha in Rājagṛha. Anathapindika invited the Buddha to Shravasti (Sravasti then) and began to look for a suitable place to build a monastery. After a long search, he found a beautiful park at the southern edge of Shravasti. The park belonged to Jeta, son of King Prasenjit of Shravasti. Jeta demanded Anathapindika to buy only as much land as he could cover with his gold coins. Anathapindika accepted the offer. When the coins were laid out, only a small area on the edge of the grove remained bare. But finally, Prince Jeta moved by Anathapindika's devotion, donated valuable wood to build the monastery. The park came to be known as Jetavana Vihāra in recognition of Prince Jeta's donation.

In all, Buddha spent 25 years living in the monastery of Jetavana. He delivered many of his teachings at Shravasti. The importance of Shravasti can therefore be analyzed from the fact that it was here where Buddha spent the longest amount of time with the largest amount of discourses and instructions leading to the path of nirvāṇa.

Shravasti of today

Although Shravasti is one of the important Buddhist pilgrimage centers within India of today, the city is relatively unknown to the global community.

In year 2015, His Holiness Drikung Kyabgon Tinle Lhundup, Throne holder of Drikung Kagyu Lineage, decided to set a foothold in Sharvasti with an objective to promote this sacred site to the world. He started organizing The Great Shravasti Buddhist Cultural Assembly which welcomes around 5,000 participants in November every year to this small town. Having acquired the land a few years back, he also started constructing a non-sectarian retreat centre. Through some challenges, The Great Shravasti Center, with 70 hostel rooms, was finally completed and inaugurated in October last year. We are part of the small founding team which helped him implement this project from inception.

We would like to re-introduce the historical and contextual significance of Shravasti to the global Buddhist community – and thus, its relevance as an important pilgrimage venue. We find it very meaningful to host such an event in Malaysia - a multi–ethnic, multicultural, and multilingual society with Buddhists from everywhere. This event will not only provide a sharing platform for different schools in Buddhism but also will boost peaceful co-existence and better understanding among practitioners of various religious beliefs. Achieving a harmonious living requires a global level of understanding that all religions are mutually acceptable in terms of their basic tenets as well as manifestations in human behaviour (to be good and to do good) along with all ramifications of traditions and their progression in contemporary life.

Key objectives to organize GSBC2020:

1. To heighten peace consciousness by spreading the message of love and compassion and bring people from different parts of the world and traditions to work harmoniously. The event is intended to transcend barriers of nationality, sects and race to unite humanity in a call for the common good of all life on earth.

2. To promote the integration of Buddha’s teachings into contemporary life, encourage a sense of Buddhism’s contemporary relevance and to help the young people to understand the basic teachings and the culture better.

3. To provide a platform for young Buddhists to learn and contribute in community works.

4. We are emphasizing the need for World peace via our attempt to set a Guinness World Record for the largest Mandala created in support of World Peace and UN's International day for Tolerance.

Main activities on 22nd November, 2020:

• Grand Amitabha Blessing Ceremony
Hosted by:
Mahayana Sect
Theravada Sect
Vajrayana Sect
Grand Prayer for World Peace
• Mindfulness Meditation
• The Guinness World Record Attempt – The making of The World’s Largest Amitabha Mandala
• Bodhicitta Carnival

Supporting organizations:
1. Malaysian Buddhist Association
2. Malaysia Buddhist Sangha Association
3. Young Buddhist Association Malaysia
4. International Buddhist College, Thailand
5. Buddhist Maha Vihara
6. Yayasan Maha Karuna
7. Great Shravasti Center India
8. Drikung Kagyu Institute, India
9. Taiwan Buddhist Tzu-Chi Foundation Malaysia
10. Malaysian Fo Guang Buddhist Association
11. Vajrayana Buddhist Council of Malaysia
12. Dharma House Society

Fund Raising Campaign

We plan to raise funds through lamp-lighting donations before and during the event, online and offline. A trust fund account will be set up with UOB Malaysia with 6 signatories (representatives from the 6 beneficiaries). The gross collection of the public fund will be distributed evenly to these 6 organizations without deducting the event expenses:

Lamp Lighting Registration – RM20 or USD5 per individual per lamp.

The list of beneficiaries: