回顧與前瞻馬來西亞佛教：第一屆馬來西亞佛教國際研討會論文集=Retrospective and Perspective of Malaysian Buddhism: Proceeding of the 1st International Conference on Malaysian Buddhism
Since the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the early Chinese Buddhist Sangha members living in Malacce were those who risked their lives by breaking the rule of forbidding travelling overseas and ventured into harsh and align lands to look after the life-and-death matter of early explorers. They went through about 200 years of hardship and changes, from living in cemeteries and accepting offerings from locals and ship merchants, to eventually contracting local temples and responsible for the profit and loss of these temples. This in fact was a response to the constrains of local environment to ensure the continuity of Chinese Buddhism in the largely unexplored land. It was as late as 1895 that Ven. Miao Lian and other monks went round more than 170 towns and villages to raise fund to build the first Buddhist temple in the Nanyang – The Kek Lok Si. Even after the investiture of the Kek Lok Si in 1904 by the Qing dynasty, monks who propagated the Dhamma in Nanyang always had to take into consideration the life style and educational standard of the devotees living in Nanyang then. When we reflect on the Chinese Sangha members doing Dhamma propagation during this period, we would realize that most of them are unknown, with many of them very well cultivated but had produced little written works. To cater to the illiterate society at the time, these Sangha members had to get involved in chanting, setting up companies to invest in properties, and even playing acrobatic tricks and running zoos. They did almost everything so that they could get into the hearts of the masses, and established the financial strength and social influence of Chinese Buddhism in the local environment. Their contribution cannot be underestimated. Later people may make a conclusion for them thus, “The hearts of Boddhisatvas cannot be judged by the books written.”
