BUDDHA FEAST IN HUY - Belgium

Three years ago the buddhistic community of Belgium based on Tibetan Buddhism had moved into a little castle in Huy a beautiful little town at the entrance of the Ardennes.

Each year there is a big gathering of all Belgian or other Buddhists in this castle, surrounded by a beautiful park. Everybody is welcome, nobody tries to convince you to become buddhist either. As I had never seen such an event and have only very poor knowledges about Buddha, I was happy when my friend Ilona asked me to come with her to this feast.

The entrance of the castle

The inside courtyard

A tibetan monk, who also was the head of this community

A view from the parc on the backside of the castle

Beautiful trees and flowers everywhere

Guest rooms for seminaries or workshops to very democratic prices

People were thirsty ! Wine, beer, tea, coffee, you could get what you wanted

A little temple, and in front people enjoying asiatic food.

The inside of the temple

The main buddha was in the middle of the parc

He was quite big and beautiful when you stood in front

but rather skinny when you looked behind. I shouldn't have been so curious !

I loved the fact that all people were so joyful and little children were running and playing under Buddha's eyes and had a lot of fun. I just imagined that in our dull churches !

An overlook

The big temple.

and another one inside. Everybody had to take off its shoes.

The main temple

a lot of hungry people ! They all lined up at the different food stands, Vietnamese, chinese, and of course tibetan food. It was very good, I choose vietnamese because there were so many people at the tibetan stand ! It also was very cheap.

I had been a little sceptical thinking that these are profit makers and would try to pull out of my wallet my last cents, but not at all ! Jewelry, cloths or little statues were even cheaper then in a shop.

It was a very cheerful atmosphere and everybody talked with everybody about everything except about buddha. I know that it is not a religion but more a philosophy and that you don't pray but meditate. That I knew already before going there, so I didn't learn much more and I didn't change my mind, I wouldn't start to meditate now, as I never pray either.