TAIPEI: In a further step toward warming relations, Taiwan and the mainland are to stage the second World Buddhism Forum later this month, joining in a common cause to promote world peace, a newspaper reported yesterday.

Times said the mainland has allowed Taiwan's Fokuangshan Monastery to join the mainland in hosting the second World Buddhist Forum.

The meeting is expected to draw 1,200 monks and experts from 54 countries and regions. The participants will discuss world peace and deliver more than 100 theses related to Buddhism, the newspaper quoted Fokuangshan (Buddhist Light Mountain) Monastery as announcing.

The first part of the forum will be held March 28-30 in Wuxi, in Jiangsu province. The second , from March 30 - April 2, will be in Taiwan, the daily reported.

The mainland's China Southern Airlines and Taiwan's China Airlines will operate five charter flights to take delegates from Nanjing, capital city of Jiangsu province, to Taiwan, it said.

The highlight of the Taiwan events will be a prayer meeting for world peace to be held at the Taipei Arena. The event will be attended by the delegates and 20,000 Taiwan Buddhists.

The mainland proposed the first World Buddhism Forum in 2004. The idea attracted support from all Buddhist countries and major Buddhist institutions around the world.

The Fokuangshan Monastery said that the upcoming forum will address more issues than the first forum, including Buddhism education, organization, music and science.

The first World Buddhism Forum was held in April 2008 in Hangzhou and Zhoushan in Zhejiang province, attended by more than 1,000 monks and scholars from 37 countries and regions.

DPA

(HK Edition 03/04/2009 page1)