Taiwan’s largest Tibetan Buddhist temple turns Ghost Festival offerings into aid for vulnerable families

Karma Kagyu Temple in Zuozhen, Tainan, is turning Ghost Festival offerings into practical help for vulnerable families. The temple began distributing household food packages to residents in four rural districts, with each recipient receiving one box of supplies.

The aid targets low-income and lower-middle-income households in Zuozhen, Nanhua, Nansi and Yujing, as well as people identified by the Yujing Social Welfare Center as being close to falling into hardship. Organizers said 1,096 people are included in this year’s distribution.

The first distribution took place at the Zuozhen District Office, with further distributions planned in Yujing, Nanhua and Nansi. Volunteers from the temple helped organize the event, which local district heads attended in a warm and orderly atmosphere.

The program, called “Pudu Zhongsheng,” gives priority to food and other supplies that vulnerable households can use. The temple’s three sites in northern, central and southern Taiwan discuss needs before purchasing the goods, rather than simply passing on ceremonial offerings. It continues to work with the Jiangyang Social Welfare Charity Foundation and the Yujing Social Welfare Center.

Lama Luoben Tianjin Rinpoche said the initiative seeks to make the seventh lunar month not only a period for honoring ancestors, but also a month of giving to disadvantaged people in rural areas. He said residents in the mountain districts had faced economic and daily-life pressures from earthquakes, typhoons and heavy rain over the past two years, and hoped the packages would reduce that burden.

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Through charitable distribution, the seventh lunar month becomes not only a month of filial devotion, but also a month of giving care to disadvantaged people in rural areas.