A Buddhist wedding in a Buddhist restaurant!
In a Chinese wedding, there are usually 2 distinct parts: a tea ceremony and a wedding dinner (reception) where family, relatives, friends, colleagues and business associates of both the bride and groom are invited. The wedding dinner is usually a very big event where an entire ballroom or grand restaurant is hired to host up to 1,000 people!
In Malaysia, hosting a wedding dinner in a restaurant is a norm but hosting a vegetarian wedding dinner is still a relatively new phenomena. Although vegetarianism is not mainstream in Malaysia, it’s growing more popular due to greater awareness of the health benefits and of course… animal welfare. Kechara Oasis at Viva Home (KOVH) has been started mainly to cater to this growing trend.
Recently Mr P C Heng, Personal Assistant to Ven Ming Ji who is the Abbot of Johor Senai Guan Inn Teng and Vice-President of Malaysian Buddhist Association (MBA) hosted his wedding dinner at KOVH. Many people from the Buddhist community attended their wedding.
I am very pleased to know that KOVH caters to the needs of the Buddhist community in Malaysia, many of whom are vegetarian. As KOVH can cater for up to 50 tables (500 people), it provides an alternative venue for newlyweds who wish to host a vegetarian wedding dinner!
Imagine… if it had not been a vegetarian dinner, the wedding would have required 50 chickens, 50 ducks, 50 fish and 50 pigs to be slaughtered. Wouldn’t it be better for the bride and groom to host a vegetarian wedding dinner and to save so many lives on their special day?
Tsem Rinpoche
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Is a great and meaningful day for this new couple. Yes, totally agree have a vegetarian wedding dinner, is save a numbers life of animals and also sharing the healthy and delicious of vegetarian foods to those meat lover. How wonderful !!!
华人很多庆典里例如宝宝弥月,生日,结婚喜宴等等都是大鱼大肉的,无形中杀害了许多无辜众生。我们人类的欢庆为何要牺牲其他众生来圆满这些。所以我现在常常劝朋友们遇上任何喜庆请用素食。尤其是宝宝弥月我更是建议,因为宝宝才一个月满,人生还未有任何功德,何德何能去消受这福气??父母们更应该三思这问题。
Kechara Oasis has a very nice ambiance and serves very good vegetarian food. It is a perfect place for weddings. It is good to know that this young couple makes the right choice to have their wedding dinner without meat. A lot of lives were saved!
I’m at the age where my friends are getting married.. Each time when I RSVP to my invitation, i let them know that I am vegetarian and they would respect that and order a vegetarian set fo me. hehe But all these wouldn’t be necessary if they had their wedding in a vegetarian restaurant. =)
In future, i would love to have my wedding dinner (though unlikely to happen, but i digress) in a KOVH! hehe
First of all, It would be happier because the animals didn’t have to die just for my wedding dinner, and secondly, it would be healthier! Compassionate dining and healthy living.. Win- win! =)
Thank you for sharing, Rinpoche! =)
A vegetarian dinner for our wedding is the way to go. imagine starting your marriage on the suffering of so many animals no wonder divorces abound in this country. So inauspicious to kill animals so we can have our wedding.
Wow how wonderful a wedding dinner without meat! Congratulation to the couple to make the right choice that choosing KO for the wedding dinner. Thanks Irene for the effort that prepare a such luxury venue for us.
I m sure all the guests will like the foods and the environment.
Congratulations to the couple. How wonderful of their mind and action for support vegetarianism. Imagine through their action,many lives have been saved. So auspicious.
That inspired me try to convinced my family having veggie dinner while my grandma birthday.
More and more young couples are booking their wedding celebration at Kechara Oasis Restaurant. They learn Dharma and appreciate the Buddhist teaching of non-violence to an auspicious wedding, an auspicious beginning to a wedded bliss. They convinced their parents to celebrate in a vegetarian restaurant.
Its much belated, but still many thanks and congratulations to the bride and bride-groom for this wonderful gesture.What good merit they acquired on such an important day! We have also introduced the first Tibetan vegetarian marriage within our Tibetan community some years ago, even followed by my own brother’s and friends’ marriage to a great success like above. Now this humane trend is slowly taking its rightful place in our community. Thank you Tsem Rinpoche for this posting. By the way, even non-vegetarians can host such blessed veggie wedding. My brother and friend were not vegetarians but they and their wife do support the cause as much as they can.
Member of Tibetans for a vegetarian society (t4vs)
Wished I was invited. Would like to taste the Shark fin soup. Vege Shark fin of course! Still got attachment to it hehe!