<p style="text-align: justify"><span style="font-size: medium">On October 4, 2017, a tea party was successfully held to celebrate the 2017 Mid-autumn Moon Festival. Over 300 people, including the Sangha and staff of Lingyin Temple as well as Buddhist believers from all walks of life, gathered at the Dharma Hall to celebrate the moon festival.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify"><span style="font-size: medium">The Mid-autumn Festival tea party began with the Buddhist ceremony of paying tribute the moon, followed by a tea art performance and performances of Buddhist songs and classical musical instruments, such as Guqin (Chinese zither) and Erhu (Chinese fiddle), and ended with the singing of Song of Triple Gems. The annual Mid-autumn Festival tea ceremony not only displayed the profound Buddhist culture of Lingyin Temple, but also the Sangha&rsquo;s benevolence, altruism and dedication to the country and Buddhism. </span></p><p><table cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" align="center" border="0" width="500"><tbody><tr><td><img alt="" src="/files/image/info/2017/10/09/2007304168.jpg" style="font-size: small;" height="343" width="500" /></td></tr><tr><td>Ritual of tribute to the moon</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><table cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" align="center" border="0" width="500"><tbody><tr><td><img alt="" src="/files/image/info/2017/10/09/2008341260.jpg" style="font-size: small;" height="345" width="500" /></td></tr><tr><td>Art performances</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><table cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" align="center" border="0" width="500"><tbody><tr><td><img alt="" src="/files/image/info/2017/10/09/2010433061.jpg" style="font-size: small;" height="675" width="500" /></td></tr><tr><td>Erhu performance of Going to West Gate (Zou Xi Kou)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><table cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" align="center" border="0" width="500"><tbody><tr><td><img alt="" src="/files/image/info/2017/10/09/2012255819.jpg" height="331" width="500" /></td></tr><tr><td><img alt="" src="/files/image/info/2017/10/09/2012528846.jpg" height="437" width="500" /></td></tr><tr><td>Experiencing Chan tea ceremony at the Mid-Autumn Festival</td></tr></tbody></table></p>

From September 16 to 20, 2017, the five-day long 2017 Chinese Buddhism Sutra Lecture Exchange and the Ten-year Anniversary Celebration for Chinese Buddhism Sutra Lecture series were jointly organized and held by the Buddhist Association of China and the Chinese Buddhism Sutra Lecture Exchange Foundation in Hangzhou. Attendees of the opening ceremony included Chairman of the Buddhist Association of China Ven. Xuecheng, Director of State Administration for Religious Affairs of P.R.C. Wang Zuo&rsquo;an, and venerable Buddhist masters and scholars from Hong Kong, Macao, the Mainland of China as well as foreign countries. Abbot of Lingyin Temple Ven. Guangquan delivered a welcome speech on behalf of the co-organizers.The event consisted of sutra lecture demonstrations, English sutra lectures, a review of the ten-year sutra lecture experience, sutra lecture exchange seminar, sutra lecture competitions, etc. After a few days of intense and yet orderly activities, the event came to a successfu

On the morning of September 15, the 2017 Chinese Buddhism Sutra Lecture Exchange Seminar, jointly organized by the Buddhist Association of China and the Chinese Buddhism Sutra Lecture Exchange Foundation, was held at Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou. Master Changshun, Director of the Teaching Affairs Division of the Buddhist Association of China, presided over the opening ceremony, and both Abbot of Lingyin Temple Ven. Guangquan and the Vice-Secretary General of the Buddhist Association of China Master Hongdu delivered a speech.Ven. Guangquan pointed out in his speech: In recent years, we have seen more and more sutra lecture training classes of increasingly larger scales in many of places, but there is a lack of research and explorations on Buddhism promotion. As the saying goes, the stones from other hills may serve to polish gems. One of the aims of this seminar is to learn from the experiences of other religions and social communities to improve our techniques of publicity so as to const

<p style="text-align: justify"><span style="font-size: medium">On the evening of September 6, 2017, the evening event of the 2017 Chinese Filial Piety Cultural Festival was held at Zhejiang Hotel in Hangzhou. Three groups of special gusts and representative role models of filial piety shared their stories at the evening party, contents of which also included interviews, prose and poetry reading, and singing of Song of the Triple Gem performed by Lingyin Buddhist Chanting Group, bringing the evening party to a joyous conclusion.<br /></span></p><p><table align="center" width="500"><tbody><tr><td><img alt="" src="/files/image/info/2017/09/09/2153304073.jpg" height="326" width="500" /></td></tr><tr><td><span style="font-size: small">The evening party of the 2017 Chinese Filial Piety Cultural Festival</span></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><table align="center" width="500"><tbody><tr><td><img alt="" src="/files/image/info/2017/09/09/2154389608.jpg" height="412" width="500" /></td></tr><tr><td><img alt="" src="/files/image/info/2017/09/09/2155215652.jpg" height="327" width="500" /></td></tr><tr><td><img alt="" src="/files/image/info/2017/09/09/2156517222.jpg" height="333" width="500" /></td></tr><tr><td><span style="font-size: small">Interviews between the hostess and role models of filial piety</span></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><table align="center" width="500"><tbody><tr><td><img alt="" src="/files/image/info/2017/09/09/2158143742.jpg" height="475" width="500" /></td></tr><tr><td><img alt="" src="/files/image/info/2017/09/09/2158539153.jpg" height="442" width="500" /></td></tr><tr><td><span style="font-size: small">Prose and poetry reading</span></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><table align="center" width="500"><tbody><tr><td><img alt="" src="/files/image/info/2017/09/09/2200388382.jpg" height="333" width="500" /></td></tr><tr><td><span style="font-size: small">Singing of Song of </span><em><span style="font-size: small">the Triple Gem</span></em></td></tr></tbody></table></p>

On the morning of September 6, 2017, a grand opening ceremony for the 2017 Chinese Filial Piety Cultural Festival initiated by Lingyin Temple and co-organized by Lingyin Temple, China News Service and Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee of Zhejiang Province was held at Zhejiang Hotel in Hangzhou. The Abbot of Lingyin Temple Ven. Guangquan delivered a speech at the opening ceremony.Filial piety, one of the Chinese traditional virtues, serves as the basis and core in construction the Chinese traditional culture. Ven. Guangquan expounded on the purpose of the festival in his speech, ＂Nowadays, one urgent priority for China is to promote the filial piety culture in order to rise to the challenges of changing times amidst intense competition among diverse cultures. The festival is aimed at disseminating positive messages by setting up role models of filial piety in the society.＂In the event, a widely represented total of twenty people from the mainland, Taiwan，Hong Kong and Macao were aw

On September 5, 2017 (the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month), the joyful Buddhist date marking the end of Vassa (the Buddhist Summer Retreat), which also also falls on Chinese traditional Ghost Festival (also known as Yu Lan Jie or Zhong Yuan Jie in Chinese, a traditional Buddhist and Taoist festival held in Asian countries, in which offerings and blessings are made to the ancestors). To mark this occasion, a grand Dharma assembly was held at the Mahavira Hall of Lingyin Temple in the morning and the Lingyin Sangha respectfully chanted The Buddha Speaks the Ullambana Sutra together at the ceremony. All Buddhist believers and tourists at the temple had the chance to feel experience the solemnity and reverence of a Buddhist ceremony.It is a tradition that sutras are chanted and offerings are made at the Dharma assembly on the Ghost Festival held by Lingyin Temple. By doing so, the parents of the present and past lives will receive the blessing merits and their karma resolved. At t

On August 26, 2017, a representative team of Lingyin Centre for Buddhist and Go Culture was invited by Lhasa Go Association to the snow-covered plateau city of Lhasa for a friendly exchange on ＂Mind of Go and Buddhism＂. The team was led by Master Jueliang, who, together with other Buddhist masters, had friendly games with go players from various parts of Tibet and shared their ideas and experience with each other.Lingyin Centre for Buddhist and Go Culture was established byThe Buddhist Association of Hangzhou in 2009. As a complement of the Humanistic Buddhist culture, the game of go plays an important role in the cultural exchange of Hangzhou Buddhist community with the world. Encouraging go enthusiasts to research and promote the game is of great importance to international cultural exchange efforts; hoping for positive influence on the development of the Buddhist cultural exchange, on the improvement of the cultural exchanges of Hangzhou in the international community and even on th

On August 24, 2017, a training course for Buddhist education and executive personnel from Xiaoshan District of Hangzhou officially began at Lingyin Temple. Forty Buddhist monks engaging in Buddhist education or the executive affairs of the temple attended the training class.At the opening ceremony, the training course organizer Master Guangxing spoke of the aims of the training course,The official leaders of Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau of Xiaoshan District always placed great importance to the spiritual construction of Buddhist temples. For instance, recognizing the difficulties and challenges faced by the Buddhist community in Xiaoshan District and have put forward new management standards and specifications accordingly, in order yo keep pace with the development of Buddhism in Hangzhou. Therefore, the Buddhist monks engaging in Buddhist education or executive affairs should value and make good use of this opportunity to learn more about temple management and Buddhist educatio