We would like to rejoice in the merits with the Thai communities in the Netherlands for hosting “the 3rd Alms Offering of 19 Venerable Monks from 10 Temples” in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The temples that participated in the event are: Buddhara temple, the Netherlands, the Dhammakaya Benelux temple (Belgium) in addition to other monk communities from the Netherlands and Belgium.
The alms offering ceremony in Amsterdam event has been continuously carried out every year for the past 3 years. This year, the 3rd alms offering ceremony occurred on Sunday June 19th, 2016 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The attendees are mostly people from the Thai communities and the locals.
The alms offering ceremony started at 9.30am, the ceremony took place in front of the Bijenkorf Department store. The ceremony was opened by the Most venerable Luangpu Phrathepputimong (sawad auttachoto) the Abbot of the Buddharam Temple, the Netherlands, and the Venerable Jamrern Kemviro of Buddhaviharn Amsterdam. It was also an honor to have the Vice Secretary Ms. Naksupang Posayanon (คุณนาฏศุภางค์ โปษยานนท์), the representative of the Thai Consulate of the Netherlands attending the alms offering event.
The alms offering ceremony was made possible with the collaboration of the supporters of the Dhammakaya Benelux, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxumberg. The venerable monk Kwanmeug Panyanamo acted as advisor and Ms. Suchapon Sutimanas was the event coordinator.
The aim of the alms-offering event, aside from engaging a good Buddhist conduct to commemorate the Lord Buddha, is to portray a good image of Thai people and to set creating a good impression of Buddhists and set a good example. In addition, the event also brought revenue to the city of Amsterdam through tourism.
Most importantly, this fosters unity between the monk communities, not only to the Thai temples but to the Laos and Cambodian temples. The temples are the spiritual refuge for Buddhists overseas. In addition, the dried food and processed food received from the alms offering will be donated to the participated temples so that these may be used during the Buddhist Lent Season.
