Posted on: Friday, May 17, 2002

Buddhist sect offers enlightening parade

By Mary Kaye Ritz
Advertiser Religion & Ethics Writer

Quiz time: Why do some Chinese Buddhists and some Japanese Buddhists celebrate the Buddha's birthday nearly a month apart?

Answer: The Fo Kuang Shan sect of Chinese Buddhists follows the lunar calendar, which sets it on the eighth day of the fourth moon of the new year. (The Chinese new year is also is determined by the lunar calendar.)

Some other Buddhists use the Western calendar, and translate the eighth day of the fourth moon to be 4/8, or April 8.

"This temple chooses the traditional day," said Albert Lui, whose Fo Kuang Shan temple moved to the Chinese Cultural Plaza early this year. "But the day is not as important as the spirit."

Fo Kuang Shan, the Buddhist sect whose name translates as Mountain of Buddha's Light (or the pinnacle of enlightenment) and here is called the Buddha's Light International Association, Hawaii, will get into the spirit of Buddha's birthday tomorrow with a parade from 'A'ala Park to the plaza.

The parade starts a daylong celebration, with music from the Royal Hawaiian Band lion dance demonstrations, popping firecrackers and martial arts.

To signify the cleansing of sins, tea is poured over the baby Buddha.

The crowd is expected to number more than a thousand, said Lui, who was recently elected president of the Hawaii Association of International Buddhists.

Fo Kuang Shan was founded by the monk Hsing Yun, who was born in China but fled to Taiwan after the Communist victory in 1949. The sect is made up mostly of Chinese, Vietnamese, Laos, Samoan and Taiwanese, Lui said, though there are 164 temples across the world, from China to South America to South Africa, and 30 in the United States.

Tomorrow's parade starts at 10 a.m. at 'A'ala Park, and the birthday celebration at the plaza goes until 4 p.m. For more information, call the Hawaii Buddhist Cultural Society, 545-1183.