c. 1999 Religion News Service

LOS ANGELES _ Hsi Lai Temple, the largest, and sometimes controversial, Buddhist temple in the United States, has ventured back into the fund-raising arena, but this time for charity _ victims of the Taiwanese earthquake and California children’s charities _ and not Democratic politicians.

The temple sponsored an Oct. 15 gala at the Los Angeles Bonaventure Hotel, netting upwards of $200,000 for its causes.

The”Songs of Compassion Charity Dinner”had all the glitz and star-power of a standard Hollywood bash. But the monks and nuns with shaved heads and mustard-colored robes who mingled among the $100- to $500-a-plate guests were not the only novelty to detach the dinner from the norm, not least of which was memories of the Hsi Lai Temple’s involvement in controversies over Democratic fund raising during the 1996 presidential campaign.

Located on 15 acres in Hacienda Heights, near Los Angeles, Hsi Lai Temple belongs to the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Order, established in 1967 by Venerable Master Hsing Yun. While Tibetan and Zen Buddhism are better known in the United States, the”Pure Land”tradition with which Hsi Lai is associated is”by far the largest group of Buddhists in the world,”according to Glenn Webb, director of the Institute for Asian Study at Pepperdine University here.

Naichen Chen, president of Hsi Lai University, which began on the temple site but moved three years ago, said the Fo Guang Shan order has temples in more than a hundred countries. The order’s monastics are 90 percent female, 10 percent male, Chen added.

While the program featured Hollywood’s Sammo Hung from the CBS series”Martial Law,”one of the evening’s biggest draws was a Taiwanese actress whose teen-age daughter had been kidnapped, raped and murdered two years ago in one of the most sensational crimes in recent Taiwanese history.

Pai Hsiao-yen, 17-year-old daughter of television celebrity and singer Pai Ping-ping, was kidnapped on the way to school April 14, 1998.

Pai Ping-ping’s appearance at the event not only underscored the fund raiser’s emphasis on battered children but followed her own recent turn toward Buddhism.

Speaking through an interpreter, the actress described herself as”a very devoted Buddhist.”Pai explained that the loss of her daughter had driven home Buddhism’s emphasis on the inevitability of suffering. One form of that suffering is not being able to get what you earnestly desire, she said.

Her experience was also a painful lesson in the Buddhist principle of the impermanence of life.

Religious practice, Pai said, had helped her get through the overwhelming grief.”In front of the Buddha,”Pai said, she could be”her true self.” Hsi Lai University’s Chen said applying Buddhism to life was part of the emphasis of the”Humanistic,”or Mahayana, Buddhism the temple promotes.

The temple and monastery were founded as an attempt to establish a foothold for its brand of Buddhist teaching in the United States, he said, adding that Hsing believed the people of”this virgin land”were ripe for the propagation of Buddhism’s principles. The meaning of Hsi Lai is”coming to the West”and serves as a reminder”to constantly serve the people of the Western world,”according to temple documents.

Regarding the temple’s political troubles, many believe a cultural snafu underlies the problems between the monastery and the U.S. Justice Department in which the 1996 luncheon for Vice President Al Gore played a role. Chen pointed to”cultural misunderstandings”on the part of”believers”who had asked the temple to hand over their funds to the Democrats.

Webb said the Gore fund-raising affair was”less sinister than it sounds.”He said the monastery’s monks and nuns made individual”contributions,”which had to be taken out of the modest”stipend”they received from Hsi Lai.

The U.S. government has accused Taiwanese-born Maria Hsia of”conspiring with the temple”to illegally solicit funds from”unnamed nuns, monks and others”who were later”reimbursed with temple funds.”The New York Times reported the government named Hsi Lai Temple as”an unindicted co-conspirator.” While Federal District Court Judge Paul S. Friedman dropped five of six charges against Hsia in September 1998, a U.S. Court of Appeals reinstated the charges last May.

But the temple’s controversial dealings with the Democrats during the last presidential campaign failed to keep away the nearly 1,400 guests who came to see the unique array of Asian talent.

According to a spokesperson for the temple, the event netted $210,000.

The temple is handing over $30,000 each to the USC Center for the Vulnerable Child and the Five Acres Boys’ and Girls’ Aid Society.

The remainder of the funds will go to a relief fund set up for earthquake victims by the Fo Guang Shan order in Taiwan. Temple officials said the order has already donated funds to rebuild three elementary schools.

Nor did the burden of political scandal weaken the unique link between dinner and dharma that promoters sought in the event. For Chen, beyond the funds raised to help Taiwanese earthquake sufferers and abused children in Los Angeles, the aim of the gala was”to inspire mercy and compassion in everybody’s heart.” DEA END PARKS