DDM Global News
Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist Association Thailand Sends Aid to Bangkok’s Priest Hospital
The Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist Association Thailand and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Thailand co-established a Taiwan Expat Pandemic Response Team. The Team visited the Priest Hospital in Bangkok on May 18, to donate medical supplies and daily necessities. Attending the donation ceremony were over a dozen of devotees from Thailand led by Ven. Chang Kong from the DDM Sangha, and Tong Zhen-Yuan, representative of the Taipei Economic & Cultural Office in Thailand.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Thailand, the Office has called on Taiwanese expats to give back to local communities. Apart from protective gear and isolation gowns, the Team also sent relief materials to the Priest Hospital, which the Association has long been sponsoring. These included rice, N95 face masks, wireless phone sets, sphygmomanometers, and bathroom scales, in an effort to help contain the epidemic and enhance health care for the monastic communities in Thailand.
Su-Lin Miao-Fen, president of DDM Buddhist Association Thailand, expressed that the hospital usually houses nearly a hundred patients, and for the past 7-8 years the Society has sponsored their meals. After the outbreak of the epidemic, local aids have mostly gone to large medical facilities and hospitals, so the Association is trying to focus their care effort on Priest Hospital, which is far more in need of resources.
After the donation ceremony, the hospital's administration gave a guided tour for DDM followers to visit the five-century-old monastery within the hospital, where the resident monks sprinkled water on the visitors as a blessing, witnessing Buddhists’ care for each other without differentiating between lineages and traditions, as well as realizing the late Master Sheng Yen's expectation of the DDM Buddhist Association Thailand to serve as a bridge between Northern and Southern Buddhism.
Text: Editorial Office
Photos: Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist Association Thailand
Translation: Chang, Chen-Yu (張振郁)
Editing: Chang, Chia-Cheng (張家誠)