Buddhist Maha Vihara ( si, මහින්ද්රා බෞද්ධ පන්සල) (also called as the Brickfields Buddhist Temple)
is a
Sri Lankan temple situated in
Brickfields A brickfield is an open site where bricks are made. Place names are often formed from the word.
Brickfield, Brickfields or Brickfielder may specifically refer to:
Australia
*Brickfielder, an arid wind
* Brickfield Hill, an area of Sydney
*Brickfie ...
of
Kuala Lumpur in
Malaysia. The temple became a focal point for the annual
Wesak festival within the city suburb.
History
After the establishment of the first
Sinhalese
Sinhala may refer to:
* Something of or related to the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka
* Sinhalese people
* Sinhala language, one of the three official languages used in Sri Lanka
* Sinhala script, a writing system for the Sinhala language
** Sinha ...
temple called
Bodhi Langka Ram Vihar in
Perak
Perak () is a state of Malaysia on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. Perak has land borders with the Malaysian states of Kedah to the north, Penang to the northwest, Kelantan and Pahang to the east, and Selangor to the south. Thailand's ...
of
British Malaya
The term "British Malaya" (; ms, Tanah Melayu British) loosely describes a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the island of Singapore that were brought under British hegemony or control between the late 18th and the mid-20th century. U ...
in 1889, a second temple was proposed by the Sinhalese community in 1894 to be construct in an area within the administration capital of Kuala Lumpur where large numbers of their community civil servants are living and working.
Facing financial difficulties to acquire a land, the community then appeal to the British government through English engineer
C.E. Spooner.
The
British government
ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd
, image = HM Government logo.svg
, image_size = 220px
, image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg
, image_size2 = 180px
, caption = Royal Arms
, date_es ...
responded to the request but said any land in the administration capital intended for public service can only be granted towards an organisation.
After a thorough discussion among the Sinhalese community, they agreed to form an organisation called the ''Sāsana Abhiwurdhi Wardhana Society'' which also responsible to resolve
social issue
A social issue is a problem that affects many people within a society. It is a group of common problems in present-day society and ones that many people strive to solve. It is often the consequence of factors extending beyond an individual's cont ...
s among their community with a foundation stone for the temple shrine room being laid down on 25 August 1894.
Through the
inaugural meeting among the community, they agreed that the appointment of the temple
abbot should be from
British Ceylon
British Ceylon ( si, බ්රිතාන්ය ලංකාව, Britānya Laṃkāva; ta, பிரித்தானிய இலங்கை, Biritthāṉiya Ilaṅkai) was the British Crown colony of present-day Sri Lanka between ...
and the temple administration would be under the Sinhalese.
A living quarters was then built to house the first
monk Patthalagedera Dhammananda Thera and his student Godagama Sobhita Thera from British Ceylon who later arrived in 1895 which also marked the foundation of the temple in the same year; despite the structure was only completed in the first decade of the 20th century,
as the control from one primary race became a constraint on the temple development until the policy was rebuked in the later years.
Although the temple management is solely controlled by the Sinhalese, a donor list published by the temple management showed that local Chinese Buddhist also donated a huge sum of money during the temple
construction; the largest sum of donation coming from
Chinese Kapitan
Kapitan Cina, also spelled Kapitan China or Capitan China ( en, Captain of the Chinese; ; nl, Kapitein der Chinezen), was a high-ranking government position in the civil administration of Dutch East Indies, colonial Indonesia, British Malaya, Ma ...
of Kuala Lumpur, Yeap Quang Seng.
Since 1920, Chinese devotees also became increasingly significant in the temple.
Features
Since the foundation of the
organisation, the ''Sāsana Abhiwurdhi Wardhana Society'' is responsible for the administration of the temple and all activities conducted on site.
Religious activities are annually organised by the society. With the establishment of the modern country of the
Federation of Malaysia, the society was registered on 3 April 1962.
Following the amendments of the country constitution in 1996, the society name was changed to the Buddhist Missionary Society Malaysia with the temple become its
headquarters
Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the to ...
.
References
News articles
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External links
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{{Malaysian historical architectures and sites
Religious buildings and structures completed in 1895
Buddhist temples in Malaysia
Buildings and structures in Kuala Lumpur
Religious buildings and structures in Kuala Lumpur
Tourist attractions in Kuala Lumpur
Overseas Sri Lankan Buddhist temples
Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist temples and monasteries
19th-century Buddhist temples