The New Zealand Buddhist Council’s tenth birthday
In 2018 we celebrated ten years of the NZ Buddhist Council, holding two peace walks:
- In Christchurch – Buddhist Mindful Peace Walk on Friday 16th November, 2018
- In Auckland – 10,800 Steps for Peace on Saturday 24th November, 2018.
We also published a booklet with stories about some of our achievements.
Click on the image or click here to see how you can get your copy.
Formation and achievements of New Zealand Buddhist Council
In 2007, Buddhists from many traditions gathered in the Leys Institute hall in Ponsonby, Auckland, to discuss the creation of a new umbrella organisation to represent Buddhist temples and centres around Aotearoa. The following year the New Zealand Buddhist Council was registered as an incorporated society, and it from is this milestone that we’re counting ten years.
Since our small beginning, we’ve grown our membership to around 25 organisations, from Kerikeri to Invercargill.
Over the last ten years we’ve done many things. We’ve:
- worked with Immigration New Zealand to change regulations for work visas and PR for Buddhist clergy so they are better suited to monastic rules, and passed on information to our members on successfully navigating the application process
- distributed over 700 donated Dharma books to 18 New Zealand prisons and facilitated Dharma and meditation classes in conjunction with Pu Shien Temple at the new Wiri prison, mainly to Chinese inmates
- presented a unique trilingual edition of the Dhammapada to Parliament’s Clerk of the House (in Pali, Chinese and English)
- held gatherings in Wellington (“Buddhist Perspectives on Caring for the Dying and Deceased”), Christchurch (a post-earthquake support network) and Auckland (Mindfulness for Teachers and Parents)
English class for monks and nuns - run training programs for Buddhist chaplains in conjunction with Amitabha Hospice and supervised the ongoing skill development of our Apprentice Buddhist Chaplains
- held workshops for Buddhist organisations on the new Charities Services reporting standards.
Along with these activities the Council has, over the years, built a network of friendship and mutual support across our member organisations. We hope to continue this work over the years to come.