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46 EASTERN HORIZON | FEATURES

Engineering

change for

greater Good

A STAR Interview with Ven. Wei Wu

BEFORE answering his calling to serve as a Buddhist Hsiang and vice versa. He is highly revered as a fatherly
monk, Neoh Kah Thong was a successful engineer, having religious figure.
done very well in Penang’s pioneer high-tech sector.
However, come March 16 this Saturday, Ven Wei Wu will
He learned Total Quality Management (TQM) from his retire as the Than Hsiang abbot at a ceremony where
Japanese teacher and friend, Prof Noriaki Kano, and Ven Zhen Dian will be installed as the new abbot.
implemented it successfully at his workplace in Penang,
a sales office in Kuala Lumpur, and many government Born into a wealthy family, Ven Wei Wu, now 70, said his
and private organisations. parents passed away before he was ordained.

For 19 years after graduating from a New Zealand “My eldest sister and foster mother were initially
university, Neoh worked tirelessly as an engineer, concerned about me abandoning my successful career.
manager and consultant in New Zealand, Malaysia, Asia, But they soon came to accept my decision and happily
the United States and Europe. witnessed my ordination by Senior Ven Xiu Jing.”

He also travelled extensively during this period and Than Hsiang now has extensive ‘cradle to grave’
learned about the various cultures and acquiring services and facilities including 10 kindergartens,
knowledge while building up a wide network. Dharma classes for children and adults, Taiji classes,
pre-marital courses, free clinics, vegetarian canteen,
When he became a monk at 43, Neoh took up the name counselling centres, homes for senior citizens at several
Venerable Wei Wu and continued to implement the TQM branches in the country as well as the International
system at Bayan Baru’s Than Hsiang Temple which he Buddhist College in Thailand.
founded with a group of friends working in Penang’s
multi-national companies, mostly from Hewlett Packard. He recalled that Than Hsiang was mooted at the Hewlett
Packard canteen when his colleagues questioned him
“There was no looking back. With the help of my about his vegetarian diet.
colleagues, friends, benefactors and supporters,
we embarked on the mammoth task to build up the “They also questioned me about Buddhism and its
Buddhist organisation till today,” he said. practices. We then started meditating and doing puja
together in a colleague’s house before setting up a
For many years, the Buddhist fraternity, especially center in Bayan Baru, which later became Than Hsiang.
those staying in Penang and the northern states, have “I received my higher ordination at the Hsi Lye Temple
regarded Ven Wei Wu as synonymous with Than in the United States. I later received my Chan (Zen)