Taiping gets nations 6th peace pole
Project chairman has a vision of people coming here to learn about living in harmony
By Marina Emmanuel
The News Straits Times 22 April 2001
The town that was founded as a result of peace between the warring Ghee Hin and Hai San mining clans, will be the site for the planting of Malaysia’s sixth peace pole today.
Peace poles are handcrafted monuments with the message and prayer “May peace Prevail on Earth” on each of its four or six sides, usually in different languages.
There are more then 200, 000 peace poles in 180 countries all over the world dedicated as monuments to peace.
They serve as a constant reminder for us to visualise and pray for world peace.
The Peace Pole project, initiated in 1976 by the Society of Prayer for World peace in Japan, is a vehicle in spreading the prayer and message of peace.
Three out of the five of Malaysia’s peace poles are located in Kuala Lumpur while the other two are found in Penang.
Datuk Dr. Anwar Fazal, steering committee chairman for the Taiping Peace Initiative, had a vision of people coming to Malaysia to learn about peace.
“The atmosphere of tranquillity of a town which was founded as a testament to peace provides the perfect site for this effort,” says Selama born Anwar, who spent more then a decade of his growing years in Taiping (whose name means ‘Everlasting Peace’’ in all Chinese dialects).
He points out to the calmness emanating from the famed Lake Gardens, a former site for tin mining over a century ago. This, together with Taiping’s hills, mountain streams and greenery/ lends the perfect backdrop for a lesson in peace and equanimity.
Taiping notes Anwar, has all the elements to serve as an “incubator for social technology”.
And the plan is for the peace pole planted at the Lake Gardens today to be the first of many, as what Anwar would like to see emerge “a garden of peace poles. We must do something which will create little ripples into big waves”.
The site for the first peace pole will also server as a focal point for a Taiping Peace Park – an area which will occupy 0.668 hectare of the Taiping Lake Gardens’ 89 hectare plot.
Lending sound, colour and harmony to this symbol of peace will be Universiti Sains Malaysia, which has pledged its students’ time and energies via regular cultural performances.
Vice- chancellor Professor Datuk Dzulkifli Abdul Razak says the university’s Art Centre would compose a melody using multiple drums of various cultures in creating “one melody, one harmony”.
This together with a suggested plaque where words of peace in every language spoken in Malaysia will be carved, will serve as another way in which peace comes tangible for all.”