Panorama of Events

[Mongolia] In May, Golden Year 3 (2006), fellow practitioners in Mongolia first participated from May 7-10 in the Best Brands 2006 Fair at a large expo trade center. Two companies owned by fellow initiates also participated. During the days of the fair, we distributed Alternative Living flyers to the thousands of visitors who attended. We also spoke to people about the importance of the vegetarian diet and offered free samples of soy milk and other vegetarian meat-substitute products.

One brother initiate who is the president of the Academy of Vegetarian Foods gave a talk called “Pure and Life Saving Foods.” The Academy also presented awards to the companies whose products were considered healthy, non-killing and without meat, fish or egg ingredients, in order to encourage them to produce more and more of these kinds of products.

For Master’s birthday, the Mongolian Center planned to help the less fortunate, clean needed areas and share Master’s teachings with the public. On May 12, we visited the Lotus Center. This is the only orphanage that serves vegetarian food to its children, so we wanted to visit and support them, especially as they often receive pressure from those who feel that the vegetarian diet is not sufficiently healthy for the children. Therefore, we went there to offer soy bean products to the orphanage and clothing and candy to its children.

There is a hospital located in the center of town, where expectant mothers go to have their babies delivered, but it is not very well kept. Thinking that a cleaner environment would be good for the mothers and the newborn babies, some fellow practitioners went to the hospital to help clean.

We also tried to help restore the land in our area. In the last few years, many trees in Mongolia have been cut down illegally resulting in areas of drought. The government therefore started a national program called “One Person, One Tree,” to encourage people to plant more trees. So we supported this movement by planting 3500 trees in the Zuunsalaa area near the capital. The forest ranger there was very glad when he learned of our purpose and thanked us for planting the trees. He said, “I’m happy because when people come they usually say, ‘We have permission to cut your trees.’ This is the first time I have seen people come to plant trees. So I’m very happy!” We named our tree-planting place after Master and made an agreement with the program administrators to protect and care for this area for the next 15 years, including planting 3500 new trees each year.

One brother also had the idea to request other organizations to serve vegetarian food on May 12. After presenting the Alternative Living idea to the Mongolian University of Science and Technology, all of its five cafeterias, where approximately 1500 people eat each day, served vegetarian food on Master’s birthday! The café for Chingeltei district’s police office, at which 200 to 300 people eat each day, also agreed to serve vegetarian food on that day. As a result, the café for Chingeltei district’s police office is now serving vegetarian food one day a week, and all five cafeterias at the Mongolian University of Science and Technology will be serving vegetarian food one day a week when the new semester begins in September.

Also in celebration of Master’s birthday, a brother-initiate who is a painter opened his gallery from May 12-19 to the public, free of charge. As the subjects of his paintings are Master’s aphorisms, he felt that this was a good way to introduce Master’s teachings to the public.

On Saturday, May 13, the Mongolia Center held a video seminar to introduce Master’s teachings to the public. Since people here often have the idea that vegetarian food is only rice and milk, we also introduced the various types of vegetarian food and how to prepare it. One hundred people attended the seminar and 90 learned the Convenient Method.