President Chen Shui-bian and 12 local and foreign celebrities jointly took part in a ribbon-cutting ceremony yesterday to open the Museum of World Religions in suburban Taipei.
"The inauguration of the museum is a proud moment for the 23 million people of Taiwan, as it is the first of its kind in the world," Chen said in a speech to mark the occasion.
The president lauded Buddhist Master Shih Hsin-tao for his longtime efforts to establish a museum aimed at highlighting the essence of all religions in the world. Chen says this "essence" of religion is love and peace.
In his view, Chen said, the opening of the museum is not only a historic event for the world's religious community but also a significant development in human civilization.
Describing the museum as a "United Nations for religions," Chen said the museum displays cultural diversity and can serve as a conduit for cultural exchanges and integration.
"The museum is meant to symbolize respect, tolerance and benevolence," Chen went on, adding that the museum will bring "new vision" to Taiwan.
Speaking on the same occasion, Shih Hsin-tao, founder of the museum, said the inauguration of the museum is just the first step toward the goal of promoting world peace and reconciliation between different religions.
The Buddhist master said he hopes that the museum will become a "temple without boundaries" and a "retreat for everyone from the unrest in the world."
Many world-renowned religious leaders and scholars traveled to Taiwan to attend the museum's opening ceremony.
Among them were Bawa Jain, secretary-general of the UN-sponsored millennium world peace summit; Lawrence Sullivan, director of Harvard University's religion research center; Rabbi Soeten-dorp, a Jewish priest from Holland; Father Mizzi from Italy's St Francisco missionary society; Dayanand Saraswati, a Hindu priest; and Manjeet Singh, a Sikhism master.
Several international cultural figures from France, the US and other countries were also present.
The museum in Yungho City, on the outskirts of Taipei, is the brainchild of Master Shih Hsin-tao, who is abbot of the Ling Jiou Mountain Wu Sheng Monastery in the northeastern Taiwan coastal township of Fulong.
The planning and construction of the museum cost NT$2 billion (US$58 million) and took 10 years to complete.
The museum boasts a great number of priceless exhibits, including a certificate of benediction offered by Pope John Paul II as a gift to the museum, as well as two ritual implements of Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and a huge landscape photograph titled the "Ocean of Wisdom," upon which the Dalai Lama had inscribed four lines of Tibetan calligraphy.
Also on display are numerous religious scriptures, artifacts, instruments, art objects and more than 7,000 books on various religions, as well as 2,000-plus video and audio recordings on religious subjects.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS