A Buddhist wedding in a Buddhist restaurant!
In a Chinese wedding, there are usually 2 distinct parts: a tea ceremony and a wedding dinner (reception) where family, relatives, friends, colleagues and business associates of both the bride and groom are invited. The wedding dinner is usually a very big event where an entire ballroom or grand restaurant is hired to host up to 1,000 people!
In Malaysia, hosting a wedding dinner in a restaurant is a norm but hosting a vegetarian wedding dinner is still a relatively new phenomena. Although vegetarianism is not mainstream in Malaysia, it’s growing more popular due to greater awareness of the health benefits and of course… animal welfare. Kechara Oasis at Viva Home (KOVH) has been started mainly to cater to this growing trend.
Recently Mr P C Heng, Personal Assistant to Ven Ming Ji who is the Abbot of Johor Senai Guan Inn Teng and Vice-President of Malaysian Buddhist Association (MBA) hosted his wedding dinner at KOVH. Many people from the Buddhist community attended their wedding.
I am very pleased to know that KOVH caters to the needs of the Buddhist community in Malaysia, many of whom are vegetarian. As KOVH can cater for up to 50 tables (500 people), it provides an alternative venue for newlyweds who wish to host a vegetarian wedding dinner!
Imagine… if it had not been a vegetarian dinner, the wedding would have required 50 chickens, 50 ducks, 50 fish and 50 pigs to be slaughtered. Wouldn’t it be better for the bride and groom to host a vegetarian wedding dinner and to save so many lives on their special day?
Tsem Rinpoche.

KOVH during the wedding

Mr and Mrs Heng with a Buddha pendant presented to them by KOVH as their wedding gift!

Kechara Liaisons Su Ming and Irene Lim presenting a Buddha pendant and a Buddha statue to Mr and Mrs Heng as their wedding gift.

Guests browsing at the souvenir shop at KOVH before the dinner. There’s a wonderful attached souvenir shop at this Kechara Oasis restaurant…must visit.

KOVH brochures for wedding packages






























































Wished I was invited. Would like to taste the Shark fin soup. Vege Shark fin of course! Still got attachment to it hehe!
Its much belated, but still many thanks and congratulations to the bride and bride-groom for this wonderful gesture.What good merit they acquired on such an important day! We have also introduced the first Tibetan vegetarian marriage within our Tibetan community some years ago, even followed by my own brother’s and friends’ marriage to a great success like above. Now this humane trend is slowly taking its rightful place in our community. Thank you Tsem Rinpoche for this posting. By the way, even non-vegetarians can host such blessed veggie wedding. My brother and friend were not vegetarians but they and their wife do support the cause as much as they can.
Member of Tibetans for a vegetarian society (t4vs)