Posted on: Sunday, August 8, 2004

Liu Chi, spiritual leader of temple

Advertiser Staff

Liu Chi, the spiritual leader and president of Kuan Yin Temple in Honolulu for more than 40 years, died Thursday. She was 94.

Liu was born in China and spent the first half of her life studying Buddhist scriptures, attending lectures and traveling widely throughout Asia to raise money for the sick and poor.

It was on a trip to Macau that she met officials from the Honolulu Kuan Yin Temple and in 1958 was invited to serve as the temple's abbess, according to leaders there.

Liu then spearheaded a fund-raising effort in Hawai'i that resulted in the construction in 1960 of the Kuan Yin Temple that now stands on Vineyard Boulevard next to Foster Botanical Garden.

Since then, she dedicated her life to teaching Buddhism as taught by the Kuan Yin Bodhisattva, promoting vegetarianism, meditation and the need to follow the right path to enlightenment.

Liu had no survivors.

Services are planned from 9 a.m. to noon Tuesday at Borthwick Mortuary in Honolulu. Cremation to follow.