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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-05-01 Daily Xml
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CAMBODIAN AND LAOTIAN NEW YEAR

Mrs VLAHOS (Taylor) (15:23): I would like to speak today on the New Year's celebrations held recently in my electorate by the Cambodian and Laotian temples in and around my area. For many South Asian and South-East Asian cultures, 13 and 14 April this year marked the start of a New Year.

The electorate of Taylor is served by three Cambodian temples and a Laotian temple in Kudla. Many Laotians in the North went to the Wat Lao of Adelaide New Year's celebrations on 14 May. Mr Likhit Nikhomvan, who is a great friend of mine and a long-time constituent of Taylor, helped in the organisation of the event. Unfortunately, this year I was unable to get along to the Laotian event, but I believe it was a colourful and fun-filled event with much laughter.

I was honoured to visit two other temples during the weekend, and these events were steeped in age-old cultural traditions. It was a pleasure to see families eating, praying and celebrating together as a community. Strong family values were displayed throughout the weekend. The Cambodian New Year, or Chaul Chnam Thmey in Khmer, places a strong emphasis on family and serving those who are in need. Celebrants come to temples throughout the area to give donations of food, money and other household staples to the monks who live in the temples.

The Venerable Bac Horng Ly is a well respected Buddhist monk, and he led the prayer service at the Watt Preah Puth Mean Chey, which is in the MacDonald Park area of my electorate. I admire the Venerable Ly's passion for learning and understanding. He is an erudite and entertaining preacher. His style of multiculturalism and mutual respect resonates with many in the local community. The Venerable Ly is a student of all religions and cultures and is adept at putting all of these commonalities into good speeches on the day.

The Wat Khemarab Dhammikaram is situated off the Salisbury Highway at Parafield Gardens, and this community was kind enough to invite me yet again to another Saturday evening celebration. Every time I visit this temple, I am continually impressed by the staggering amount of development they do in such a short period of time. The grounds include a traditional pagoda temple and the building serves as a lodging for the monks. Thanks to Mr Anh Oan for greeting me and showing me their amazing plans to upgrade the site over the forthcoming years.

I would also like to acknowledge the hard work of Mr Savonn Ly, the president of the Wat Khmer Santipheap Temple at Paralowie in my electorate, who was very busy coordinating events at the temple, considering that his son was getting married the following week to the Hon. Carmel Zollo's daughter. He was affected by the very sad and tragic decision by GMH to cut its workforce, but this did not faze his sense of duty to his community. With the assistance of Sambuth and Neang Yun, as well as the rest of the temple committee, they led a successful celebration full of traditional games, music and food. Indeed, I have been there many times and they always make me truly welcome; I feel part of a family there.

My electorate is a rich tapestry of cultures. The New Year celebrations earlier in April were just a small window into some of the traditions practised by many of the families in the north of my area. I congratulate all those who helped to organise the celebrations on a truly spectacular job and wish all a very happy and prosperous Year of the Snake.

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