Venerable Sangha, Honoured guests, Brothers and Sisters. It is truly a great pleasure for me to be here at Wat Buddharangsi temple, for the first showing of the Jade Buddha for Universal Peace in Miami.
In the year 2000 a massive boulder of Jade was discovered in the arctic circle of Canada. It was 18 tonnes of gem quality jade and nothing like it had ever been found before. It was called “the find of the millennium” and it was given the name “Polar Pride”.
In 2003 an American, Mr Cheyenne Sun Hill called me from Santa Cruz and said he was a Buddhist and he wanted someone in the world to create a Buddha from this enormous jade boulder.
I spoke to my master, Lama Zopa Rinpoche about the jade boulder and that night he had a vision. The next day he told me “You must turn this jade gem into a Buddha as a holy object to offer to the world.”
It took another 5 years of great effort by my wife and I as well as thousands of people around the world who offered their time and money to create the world’s largest gem-quality Jade Buddha.
We chose master carvers in Maesai, Chaing Rai, NorthernThailand to create the Buddha. We are forever grateful to the skill and quality craftsmanship of the Thai people who have made the Jade Buddha the wonderful piece of art that it is.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche named the Buddha “The Jade Buddha for Universal Peace”. He said “It will illuminate the world and bring inconceivable peace and happiness and help prevent the destruction that is happening so much in the world, including war.” Rinpoche said if you leave the Buddha in one place, then only a few can see it - but if take the Buddha around the world then billions of beings can receive its blessing of peace and harmony. Our aim is that this world tour will inspire everyone who sees it to find peace in their home, their schools, their work and most importantly peace in their heart and mind.
The world tour began in March 2009 in Vietnam. In just 3 months around 4 million people paid homage to the Jade Buddha in Vietnam. After Vietnam the Jade Buddha travelled to Australia. And now it has begun its tour of USA and Canada which will go on until May 2011. After North America the Jade Buddha travels to Germany, England, France, before returning to Asia. Eventually the Jade Buddha will come to its final home at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion that we are building in Bendigo, Melbourne, Australia.
May the Buddhadharma flourish. May peace break out around the world.
Our thanks once again to Venerable Monks and the members of Wat Buddharangsi.
As a token of our gratitude we wish to present this commemorative photograph of the consecration of the Jade Buddha for Universal Peace by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Sydney Australia on December 1 2009.
NAM MO SAKYAMUNI BUDDHA
