Life Liberation @ Ulu Tiram, Johor Bahru

A week after returning from my Malacca trip, my folks and I were once again heading to Johor Bahru with Dad's friend (yes, that same uncle we went to Malacca with).

We are going there to take part in this "Life Liberation" (fangsheng/放生) event where we will be releasing animals into the wild. It is my first time attending such an event and as a Buddhist, while I applaud the cause, I am at the same time thrown into a dilemma.

I believe the purpose of liberation is to rescue animals from a live and death situation (eg, live animals saved from being slaughtered for food) but, what if the animals (eg. birds/fish) are intentionally captured/trapped from the wild for the sole purpose of selling to us to free them, then what is the point?

UPDATE: This is exactly what I meant but unable to summarize in a few words!

Do you see the vicious demand and supply cycle? Because there are people like us who want to free birds and fishes, then there will be people who want to supply us with what we want.

And in the process of capturing them, how many of these animals were injured, undergo trauma or even died while in captivity?

Yes, I have seen with my own eyes during this event a couple of birds laying at the bottom of their cages, one even had its leg caught by the cage door.

We wanted to save lives but instead, we maimed or even caused the death of the animals. Aren't we doing more harm than good then?

I am all for liberation but I hope those we release are really the ones in need i.e rescued from the markets instead of from a supplier who captures animals for this purpose.

Anyway, I digress.

That morning, we met up at Kranji MRT Station. After taking attendance, we boarded one of the three hired coaches and headed for the customs. Once cleared, we came to this vegetarian restaurant 原味素食苑 for breakfast.

There were already some locals having breakfast when we reached there around 8am.

Food was served buffet-styled. The menu include the usual breakfast options like fried noodles/kway teow, curry, various mock meat and vegetable dishes. I find the food here rather oily while the noodles were too soggy for my liking.

The coffee, though nice, is not properly filtered for coffee dregs.

原味素食苑
2, Jalan Titiwangsa 3/2

Taman Tampoi Indah

81200 Johor Bahru
Johor

Finishing breakfast, we troop up the coach again and we reached somewhere near Sutera Mall (五福城). The coach stopped right in front of a building and we went up the unit on the highest floor. From there, we were ushered inside a smaller room with Tibetan Buddhism influences.

Imagine three bus loads of people squeezing inside one small room is no joke.

We quickly settled down and began praying for the animals that we will be freeing in a while.

The booklet containing all the mantras

Just some of the mantras we chant

How the room look like

I think we spent at least 30 minutes chanting before we leave for lunch.

Lunch was here

Similar to the vegetarian restaurant where we had our breakfast earlier, the food here were also served buffet-styled. I find that the food here suits my palate more.

There is soup and at least three beverages (luo han guo, coffee and something else which I cannot remember).

香满居素食馆
No 27 & 29 Jalan Gaya 25
Taman Gaya
81800 Ulu Tiram
Facebook

After lunch, it is time to head to our destination - Santi Forest Monastery at Ulu Tiram. So what do I do during the long, boring ride?

My personal in-flight entertainment

I watched Shin Chan on my Samsung Tab 2!

Santi Forest Monastery 宁心寺

The monastery is at quite a ulu place with lots of turns here and there off the beaten tracks.

In fact, it is located next to a palm oil plantation with cages of live birds, tortoises and fishes in packets already on the ground waiting for us.

The fishes

Cages of birds

Tortoises

This tranquil palm oil plantation is where we free the birds

But first, one last prayer before we release them

These are the birds I freed

After we were done releasing the birds, we carried the containers of fishes and tortoises and walked through the plantation via a small path to the river bank.

Little huts like these flanked both sides of the small path leading all the way to the river. The organizer said these huts are where the Monks coop up to study Dhamma and practice meditation. The women folks in our group are reminded not to wander about in case the Monk's efforts came to naught.

The fishes I released - I think they were called "Tong Sat", a kind of cat fish

One of the largest tortoise we released that day

Swim free! And don't get caught again!

Here we are, liberating life but further down the river, there are two men casting fishing nets. Isn't it an irony?

But I guess that is life and it is all part and parcel of the cycle. I only wish the best for the fishes to avoid the nets.
 

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