Plan to build Wong Tai Sin Temple in Kuala Penyu
KOTA KINABALU: A delegation from the renowned Wong Tai Sin Temple in Hong Kong arrived in Sabah yesterday to inspect a proposed site to build a temple in Kuala Penyu.
If the plan materializes, the Wong Tai Sin Temple in Sabah will be the first in Malaysia and third in countries outside Hong Kong.
The nine-member delegation, led by Lee Yiu Fai, the abbot of Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple, were warmly received at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) by Kuala Penyu Chinese Chamber of Commerce president Fung Tack Fui, Sipitang Chinese Chamber of Commerce president Yeo Boun Kiat, Sabah Wong Tai Sin Worshippers Association leaders and advisor of the Sabah Wong Tai Sin Temple Building Committee, Chok Ming Chong.
Sik Sik Yuen is the managing body of Wong Tai Sin Temple.
On June 4 this year, Assistant Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Pang Yuk Ming, and Kuala Penyu assemblyman Limus bin Jury led a 20-member delegation to pay a courtesy call on the temple’s management committee to seek the blessing and guidance from the latter to build a new Wong Tai Sin Temple in Kuala Penyu.
Wong Tai Sin Temple in Kowloon is currently the most successful and popular temple in Hong Kong, attracting over 20,000 locals and tourists daily. The 18,000-squaremetre Taoist temple is famed for the many prayers answered - what you request is what you get.
Through collections and donations totaling over HKD100 million received each year, the temple runs numerous charity and welfare programmes. At present, the temple owns and operates more than 10 old folks’ homes and elderly daycare centres throughout Hong Kong.
Other Wong Tai Sin Temples are also located in Macau and Vancouver, Canada.
Also present were Sik Sik Yuen director cum Religious Affairs Committee vice chairman Wong Chik Wai, Sik Sik Yuen director cum Religious Affairs Committee member Leung Lee Chung, Working Group of Repentance Rituals member Law Kam Hung, priest of the 6th Repentance Ritual Culture Class, Li Chung Tai, corporate communications officer Jessica Yim, executive officer (religious affairs) Elaine Ng, Wong Tai Sin Sports and Recreation Association chairman Dr Matthew Wong and Wong Tai Sin Wei Lan Women Association president Mary Wong.