In December 2011, under Venerable Master’s guidance, the Buddha Memorial Center officially opened to the public and received the National Golden Award For Architecture: Golden Lion Award for Culture and Education) the following year. In 2014, three years after its opening, the Buddha Memorial Center has been recognized as a member of ICOM (International Council of Museums), becoming the museum to acquire membership in the shortest time since opening. In the same year, the Buddha Memorial Center was awarded the 2014 Travelers’ Choice and a Certificate of Excellence by the world’s largest travelling website, TripAdvisor, gaining international recognition for having hosted various art exhibitions, promoting education and Cross-Strait cultural exchange, collecting artifacts from different eras for its underground palace, and continuously contributing to the society.

  To promote world peace, over the years, Venerable Master has met with leaders of different countries including King Bhumibol of Thailand, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, President Diosdado Macapagal of the Philippines, President of Dominica Sir Clarence Seignoret, Vice President of the United States Al Gore and three Prime Ministers of Malaysia Mahathir, Abdullah Badawi and Najib. Besides, Venerable Master has also had religious dialogues with other religious leaders such as President of the World Fellowship of Buddhists HSH Princess Poon Pismai Diskul, Roman Catholic Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.

  In 2004, he accepted the position of chairperson of the religious organizations association in the National Cultural Association. Together with religious leaders of Christianity, Catholicism, Yi-Guan-Dao, Daoism, and Islam, he attended the Praying for Love and Peace Concert, which promoted communication between religions and implicated the use of religion to help purify the minds of people in society. Venerable Master has also held cultural exchange forums with Swedish Academy Nobel Committee member Professor Goran Malmqvist, Swedish Sinologist Professor Torbjorn Loden, Harvard University’s Professor Ezra Vogel, and Winner of Nobel Prize in Literature Mo Yan. In 2013, his meeting with three successive Presidents of Mainland China, Xi Jinping, Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin has written a new page in the Buddhism history.

  In recent years, Venerable Master has returned to China to rebuild Da Jue Temple and also to donate to the construction of the Chinese Academy Museum, Jianzhen Library in Yangzhou, Nanjing University’s Fo Guang Building as well as to establish the Yangzhou Forum and the Venerable Master Hsing Yun Public Education Trust Fund, all with hopes of promoting Cross-strait harmony and bringing world peace.

  Throughout his lifetime of propagating Humanistic Buddhism, Venerable Master Hsing Yun has indeed contributed tremendously to the systematization, modernization, humanization, and internationalization of Buddhism development!

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