By Balwant Sanghera
City of Richmond, in co-operation with Richmond Museum Society has just concluded its tenth annual Doors Open Program. This very popular annual event provides the participants with an excellent opportunity to explore the richness of the City’s heritage, arts and culture. It showcases as to how this community’s cultural heritage combines to make it such a great place to live, work and play.
Richmond is well known for many of its special features. It is considered to be one of the healthiest, cleanest and multicultural communities in Canada. The Olympic Oval, Steveston Village, the Highway to Heaven and the rich farming heritage of this community are someof Richmond’s outstanding assets and attractions. For the past several years, the City of Richmond along with Richmond Museum Societyhas been showcasing what this community has to offer.Doors Open offers an excellent opportunity to explore Richmond’s unique religious, cultural and heritagesites. This year, 42organizations including a number of places of worship and various institutions opened their doors to the public on Saturday, June 3 and Sunday, June 4 between 10 AM and 4 PM on both days.
Among these 42 places this year, there were a large number of places of worship which took part in this annual event designed to showcase some of Richmond’s attractions. It included three places of worship along our Highway to Heaven (aka #5 Road). Lingyen Mountain Temple at Williams and #5 Road provided guided tours to Pure Land Buddhist Monastery established in 1999.The traditional Chinese architecture also houses a Buddha Hall. The Hall is used for chanting meditation sessions and houses Buddhist statues, paintings, calligraphy and wood sculptures. It was a great way to experience tranquility in the peaceful circular meditation garden and enjoy a free vegetarian lunch. The visitors then moved on to India Cultural Centre of Canada Gurdwara Nanak Niwas down the road.
This spacious place of worshipfor the Sikh community welcomed visitors on both days. In addition to giving a brief overview about Sikhism and the Indo-Canadian community,the enthusiastic volunteers welcomed the visitors and showed them around.In this regard close to twenty volunteers including students from Cambie and Steveston -London Secondary Schools and community activists took the time to welcome visitors on both days.
While at the Gurdwara, visitors were invited to the Diwan (Prayer) Hall and were given a brief overview of the teachings/philosophy of the Sikh Holy Scripture, Shri Guru Granth Sahib. The visitors were also given brief talk about the growth and development of the Indo-Canadian community in Canada. The tour concluded with light refreshments and a delicious vegetarian lunch (langar). It was great to see a large number of visitors from diverse communities take the time to visit the Gurdwara. From the Gurdwara, the visitors moved to BC Muslim Association’s Richmond Mosque.
This 30 year old mosque is one of the largest mosques in Metro Vancouver. Its traditional architecture is quite impressive. It serves worshippers from the Far East, Middle East, Africa, Indian subcontinent and Europe. This being the time for the Ramadan, the focus was on how Ramadan teaches patience and compassion.
These were just some of the 42 excellent sites for the visitors to enjoy. The organizers as well as the volunteers at each of these special sites did an amazing job in welcoming the visitors and make them feel comfortable. The City of Richmond and Richmond Museum Society must be commended for doing an excellent job in highlighting our community in such an impressive manner.
Balwant Sanghera is a retired School Psychologist and Community Activist. He is also a member of the India Cultural Centre of Canada Gurdwara Nanak Niwas Management Committee.
