Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Temple

The Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery (also: "Bright Hill Pujue Ch'an Monastery") (zh-stp|s=光明山普觉禅寺|t=光明山普覺禪寺|p=Guāngmíng Shān Pǔjué Chán Sì), is located at 88 Bright Hill Road at Bishan. It is the largest Buddhist temple in Singapore.

History

In 1920, Venerable Zhuan Dao realised that the time was right to build a place of practice to propagate the Dharma and to provide lodging for monks, as there were many Buddhist monks who came to Singapore without lodging. In 1921, the building of Phor Kark See Monastery started as the first traditional Chinese forest monastery in Singapore.

Since Phor Kark See Monastery is situated at Kong Meng San ("Bright Hill", formerly "Hai Nan Mountain"), it came to be known as Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery. The Monastery grew steadily and Dharma propagation began in Singapore. In 1943, Venerable Zhuan Dao died at Putuo Monastery at the age of 72.

In 1947, Venerable Hong Choon became the monastery's abbot. With great perseverance, he progressively developed and expanded the monastery with his followers into the largest and most majestic place of practice in Singapore. Venerable Hong Choon also initiated the monthly Great Compassion Prayer and taught the Dharma to benefit many.

Phor Kark See developed from a remote temple into a monastery well known to all. For the pass 20 years, more than 6000 people from all walks of life, from Malaysia and Singapore, had taken refuge in the Triple Gem here. It is also an ideal place of practice for thousands of Buddhists. News about it was soon spread overseas by the Sangha who visited the place.

In 1980, the temple began to build Evergreen Bright Hill Home with the donation of S$5.3 million from Venerable Hong Choon's followers, He Hui Zhong's family's company. In the year 1994, the then President of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong visited the Home and praised its cleanliness, good service and well-equipped facilities.

On 25 December 1990, Venerable Hong Choon died, and the monastery lost one of its most highly accomplished monks.

Venerable Yan Pei was next to take up abbotship in 1991, followed by Venerable Long Gen in 1994. The fifth Abbot of the Monastery was Venerable Sui Kim, the abbot of Xing Yuan Temple and Hwa Zhang Temple in the Philippines. He died in 2005.

On 5 June 2004, Venerable Kwang Sheng became the monastery's abbot.

Under Venerable Kwang Sheng's leadership, the Dharma Propagation Division was set up for Singaporeans to learn Buddhism and practice the Dharma in relevant ways. One of its department, kmsYM, the Youth Ministry was set up 6 years ago to serve as a platform for Singaporean youths who want to know about Buddhism, learn Buddhism and serve the society via Buddhist teachings. Appreciating the universal truth that all phenomena are impermanent, unsatisfactory and lack of inherent reality, kmsYM youths live life with wisdom, compassion and courage. Individual dreams, and career goals are realised by youth leaders, volunteers, participants, full-time staff and advisors supporting each other. The regular programmes are:

*w*s*d*p on every Thursday evening introducing Buddhism via talks, workshops, movie reviews, etc

Y_Cultivation Workshops on every Saturday evening offering lessons on Basic Buddhist teachings and practices such as Loving-Kindness meditation and the Amitabha Pure-land teaching

Y_Cultivation Group Practices for participants who have completed the lessons

Y_Cultivation One-day Retreats for busy professionals to recharge

Y_Fellowship on alternate Sunday mornings for youths to practice Buddhism and support each other in fellowhsip

YAC (Young Artiste Club) for youths interested in being well-rounded performers

Spiritual Countdown on the last day of December for youths to usher in the new year with party and spiritual renewal

to find out upcoming events, please refer to www.kmspks.org/youth

External links

* [http://www.kmspks.org Official site]