This is my favorite decorated car in the Wesak Day procession 2010 in Kuching, Malaysia.  It was decorated with a lot of lotus flowers with beautiful lighting.  Most importantly, there was a Chinese style litter or JiaoZi (in Chinese) for GuanYin.

The front part of this trunk was actually a big contrast to the rear part.  There was a big picture of multi races in Malaysia.  Salam Satu Malaysia to other races in Malaysia, you are welcome to watch this Wesak Day procession.

This was a roofless decorated vehicle with at least 3 Buddha statues on it.  Can you see the driver was driving the custom made truck?  There was no side mirrors or rear-view mirror for this vehicle.  It must be interesting to drive this type of vehicle, I hope I have a chance to drive in the future.

Let’s see who was coming?  I have taken this photo directly in front of the vehicle from quite far away before it was coming near to me.  The head light shone directly into my camera.

Yes, a Buddha with a big stomach and smiling face was coming.  He is called Maitreya (or MiLe in Chinese).  His smiling face and big stomach give the meaning of high tolerance because he can store everything in his stomach.

He is also called a “BuDaiHeShang” which means a monk with a bag, because he always carries a bag with him.  But in the picture above, he was carrying a hat.

Another GuanYin statue on the decorated vehicle.  The number 2554 on the truck was implying that this year is the 2554th year in the Buddhist calendar.

Another decorated truck was having a Buddha statue as the background, and a team of local musicians were playing traditional Chinese music using YangQin.

Another decorated vehicle was having the 1Malaysia theme.  The girl on the left in red cheongsam represented Chinese, and the boy on the right with a shield and a feather hat represented Dayak in Sarawak.  Yes, this year the Wesak day and the Gawai day for Dayak are very close to each other.

Wesak Day - 28 May 2010.

Gawai Day - 1 and 2 June 2010.

This 1 Malaysia theme design suits our Malaysia cultures in multi races very well, but it looked a bit messy to me.  Look!!!  There was a speaker on top of the truck, can you see that?

Well, if you ask if there was any lion dance in this procession?  No, there was not even a single lion dance.  I think it is good to differentiate between Chinese tradition believes and Buddhism.  It is not too noisy compared to the Chinese temple parade with lion dances where I can watch in under a normal heart beat.

You may also ask if there were any people walking in the procession?  Yes, there were quite a lot, and I will show you in the coming post after the Gawai holiday.

To be continued…   and stay tuned….

We had a different experience on this year’s Wesak Day.  We were also on the road and among crowds of people.  We were excited and thrilled about the parade.  We were waiting patiently.  And for the first time, we were not the participants of the parade this year but the spectators!

Suddenly, the policemen arrived in their big motorbikes.  They were dressed neatly in their uniforms and they parked their motorbikes aside, walked down, took their positions on the road and controlled the traffic.  The crowd suddenly appeared from every direction.

After that, we saw the participants of the parade in their teams and the decorated vehicles moving towards us.  The Sarawak Buddhist Society’s team led the parade followed by the team from different secondary schools in Kuching.  Next, the decorated vehicles appeared with its team following closely behind.  They are usually Buddhist temples and organisations in Kuching.  The decorated vehicle shown in the picture above shows the statue of Prince Siddhartha (Gautama Buddha) when he was born.  This one was colourful and attractive.  The butterflies were controlled by a mechanism and they were flapping their wings as the vehicle moved along the road.

The participants really put in a lot of effort in decorating the vehicles.  The colour yellow is often used because it represent light.  We need lights to see things in the dark.

Buddha has shown us the light in our life.  Enlightenment and awakening help us to see things clearer and to understand and control our emotions in a more effective way.

The side of this vehicle was decorated with golden cloth designed in a beautiful pattern.  There were also man made lotuses and lotus flowers.  Someone was controlling the music “behind the scene”.  Everyone put their hands together to give the highest respect to Buddha.

There was a stupa on this decorated vehicle.  Surrounding the stupa were the statues of Buddha.

Another view of this decorated vehicle.

There were reverends sitting on this decorated vehicle next to the stupa.  This reverend was sprinkling blessed water to the crowds with hope that everyone will have a blessed and peaceful life.

They were also reading mantra. Play this video to listen to it.

This vehicle used a towing car to move forward.  Unlike the others, they had drivers on board to make it move.

To be continued…

Happy Wesak Day to all Buddhists !!!  :D  It is the commemoration of the birth, enlightenment (Nirvana), and passing away (Parinirvana) of Gautama Buddha.

This year,  SiewPeng and I will not participate in the Wesak day parade, but I will be taking a lot of photos of the events this coming evening.  This year, we will have the opportunity to see how other teams perform.  You will be expecting photos of the Wesak day parade here in the coming days.

Last year, I asked a friend (a foreigner who is not a Buddhist) to watch the parade, but he missed it because he thought the parade finished at 10 pm like other Chinese temple parade.    The next day, he asked me why there was no parade, and we had a whole afternoon chat about religion.  He is a Doctor in sociology, and asked me a lot of questions on Buddhism.  I have learned a lot about his religion as well.  Some points we both agreed is that good religions have been bringing good value to human beings, and different religions are from the same root where the good value began.  … … This year he has gone back to his country.

Since today is the greatest day for Buddhists, I have great things to share with you as well.  We have the opportunity to see the Buddha’s relics, and you too.  I am going to show you the photos of the Buddha’s relics.

This is not the first time I saw the Buddha’s relics.  I have seen other relics as well years ago.  But these relics are very special to us, because SiewPeng and I were very lucky to meet a monk when we were in Ipoh end of last year.

The story started here.  I met a friend in Ipoh, and we had a chat about random topics.  Suddenly our topic shifted to Buddhism, he said that a monk from Myanmar was going to visit a private temple that he usually goes to.  He brought us to that private temple.  Although we had a long wait there but finally the monk came.  The monk gave everyone there a little bottle, guess what’s inside…  :D It was the Buddha’s relics.

SiewPeng and I have one set each, we keep them in a dual layer glass stupa.  We might give the relics to a temple or Shifu (reverend), or someone who treasures the value of the relics at a good timing and good place (may be after they grow more).

If we traveled too early or too late to Ipoh, we would have missed this opportunity.  I really want to thank the friend who brought this opportunity to us.

One thing special about the relics - it can grow bigger and grow many smaller relics if the relics have been given high respect because it represents the Buddha.

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Buddhism can be easily misunderstood by most people (including some of those who called themselves Buddhists).  It can be easily mixed with Chinese traditional believes / or other cultural elements which are not the teaching of pure Buddhism.  Those who believe Buddha or any statue can make them richer or healthier or safer without knowing the theory of karma (causes and effects), do not actually get the benefit of the main objective of Buddhism - awakening / having awareness about the universe.  The reason is because many people are more interested in earning money than reading books to understand what the Buddhism is about.

Happy Wesak day!!!

This is a type of Melocactus (Melon Cactus).  I am not sure about its exact species name, but I can identify it by its special “head” called cephalium.

Cephalium is a structure of wool and bristle at the growing tip of certain cacti (most commonly found on Melocactus).  It can appear in different shapes and colours (usually in bright colours).  The cephalium will only begin growing after a cactus has reached a certain size or age. Once flowering begins the flower buds will form from the cephalium.

This type of cactus is not my favorite cactus because the hair on its head (cephalium) seems not combed properly.  However, it reminded me on a song sang by ZhaoChuan (a Taiwan Chinese singer) - “WoHenChou, KeShiWoHenWenRou“, which means “I am ugly, but I am soft“.

This is another photo of a type of succulent plant that I have taken somewhere in Cameron Highlands, West Malaysia.

First, I only knew that it is a succulent.  I kept on searching for its name from the Internet but it was not an easy job.

From the dots and shape of the leaves, I have a feeling that it is related to a plant called “LuoDiShengGen” in Chinese or Miracle Leaf in English (Scientific name: Kalanchoe pinnata).  I know it is not “LuoDiShengGen” but it just looks similar.

I started to search using the keyword “succulent” but the results and images that came to me were not what I was looking for, “succulent” was too general.  Orchid, rose moss, pineapple etc. are considered as succulents as well.

Later I search LuoDiShengGen in Chinese and Miracle Leaf in English, I have learned that this group of similar plants are under Family “Crassulaceae” , and Genus “Kalanchoe“.  Under “Crassulaceae” family, there are other plants which are not Kalanchoe (that I can ignore).  But under “Kalanchoe” genus, there are about 125 species, which appear in format of “Kalanchoe xxxxxxxx”.

I used another keyword to seach for it - “hairy Kalanchoe” because I found some white hair on its leaves.  Finally I found the pictures with similar plants but the colour of the dots on the leaves were darker.  It was called Panda Plant.  I searched for more pictures and confirmed that the picture above is a Panda Plant, and its scientific name is “Kalanchoe tomentosa“.

What I have learned can be summarized as follow:-

1.  Under Family Crassulaceae, there are 33 genera, Kalanchoe is one of them.

2.  Under Genus Kalanchoe, there are 125 species, Kalanchoe tomentosa (Panda Plant) and Kalanchoe pinnata (miracle leaf) are two of them.

3.   Under Kalanchoe tomentosa, I found that there are different varieties of Panda Plants, which have different colours of dots, and different shapes of leaves, etc..

Classification and naming of living being is not an easy job.