Pilgrimage Sept. 2009

Chairperson Wong of T.S.E.A. once vowed that when peace arrives, he would go to Sri Lanka to thank Buddha's blessing. Peace did arrive, so Chairperson Wong, age 76, took time off and paid a pilgrimage to Sri Lanka.

How we began

While the formally formation of our organisation was carried out in Taiwan in the year 1999 by Ven. Dr. Bodagama Chandima the fundamentals of our organised charity work dates back earlier.Our founder had in his home country Sri Lanka already brought the Dharma Chakkra Child Foundation as part of his charity work into being in 1993.

With his projects like the Dharma Chakkra children's homes he had the goal to transcend the boundaries of nations and races by involving people from various backgrounds and to realize the Bodhisattva path.As stable financial income is a requirement for the continuity of charity projects Ven. Dr. Bodagama Chandima accepted the donation of a ground-floor apartment in San-chun, Taipei from Ms. Chen Jiezhi and Mr. Huang Saiying in 1995.Hereby the basis of the Theravada Samadhi Education Association was laid and so our organisation was founded for the purpose of funding charity projects in Sri Lanka. Mr. Wang Zhuqing was elected as the first president.

In the course of time our association grew and in the end the San-chun premises have no longer been big enough to accommodate our congregation. When The Corporate Body of the Buddha Educational Foundation heard about our difficulties, it gladly donated bigger premises to us without hesitation.In the year 2004 the Theravada Samadhi Education Association moved to the current location in Shipai, Taipei. Our new address is only a 10 minutes walk away from Shipai MRT station.

We hope that with this convenient and more spacious location, those who either wish to learn about Dharma or want to take part in our charity projects may find it easier to join us.

Activities in Taiwan

We conduct various actitivies at our location in Taipei. Besides the planning of our charity projects we do hold volunteer training sessions there, to prepare them for their work in Sri Lanka.We also offer various classes and events like for example meditation classes, chinese classic reading for children or Buddhist studies. New this spring term is a Sinhala class, as many of our members realized the need for knowledge of the Singhalese language in order to intensify their invovlement in charity projects or to pursue their meditation training in Sri Lanka.