The Quang Duc Buddhist Monastery in Melbourne’s north-western suburb of Fawkner, held a music concert on Sunday with special performances by local singer Bang Chau and United States singers, Diem Lien and Dan Nguyen.

Senior Venerable Thich Nguyen Tang, who is the abbot of the monastery and also deputy-secretary of the Unified Vietnamese Buddhist Congregation of Australia-New Zealand, told TiVi Tuan-san the monastery has relied on donations over the past twenty years for its construction projects.

“Every three months, we organise the vegetarian fundraising. People come to eat food and donate some money.”

“But recently we have organised the music shows, around three years now.”

“Today is the first time [we are fundraising] for the building of the kitchen & public toilets area.”

The budget of the current project is expected to cost between $300,000 to $400,000.

Quang Duc Monastery is a major Vietnamese Buddhist Centre for the northern and western regions of Melbourne.

The monastery is named after the Most Venerable Thich Quang Duc, a Vietnamese monk who in 1963, self-immolated in central Saigon while sitting in the lotus position as a protest against the oppressions of Buddhist priests and the Buddhist community.

The monastery was established in a small three-roomed house in 1990, in the northern suburb of Broadmeadows. However, in 1997, as the number of Buddhist believers grew, the monastery moved to Fawkner and purchased the site which belonged to a decommissioned old school – an area of nearly 8000 square metres – for $350,000.

Since then, all construction projects including stupa towers, meditation and youth activities halls have amounted up to $5 million dollars.

“We borrowed $550,000 from the bank that still has to be repaid. $150,000 was borrowed from Buddhist community’s interest free,” Senior Venerable Thich Nguyen Tang said.

“We will be in debt to the bank for 20 years and will need to generate fundraising activities towards servicing our debt.”

Quang Duc Buddhist Monastery in Fawkner. (Photo:TiVi Tuan-san)

Senior Ven. Nguyen Tang said it is important to ensure such facilities would be available for future generations.

“We build this temple for our future generation. That is our duty and our responsibility to do it so I urge everyone to pay attention and continue supporting the monastery.”

He added that Sunday’s music concert was another step closer to accommodating the needs of everybody who comes to the monastery.

“I think [the event] was successful. There’s good weather and many people come to the temple to enjoy the vegetarian food and good music.”

“We are happy to welcome everyone to come.”

Senior Ven. Nguyen Tang has also urged the public to help support the monastery.

“We require the Vietnamese in Victoria to come and support the monastery, to contribute and to join hands to build the temple because we are the first generation.”

To view more pictures from this event, please click this link.

– TiVi Tuan-san