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Executive decision
Breakthrough ride
Former gas boss Rick Parnell gave up his lucrative desk job for a dream life of singing, songwriting and guitar playing.
Up-and-coming Richmond cyclist Ben Chaddock surprised many with a victory in the prologue speed event at the 10th annual Tour de Delta.
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RELIGION
CANADA LINE
Highway to Heaven welcomes new resident
Public transit fare evasion figures revealed
Workmen uncover strange phenomenon at Tibetan Buddhist monastery BY NELSON BENNETT
nbennett@richmond-news.com
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550 tickets issued by transit cops BY ALAN CAMPBELL
acampbell@richmond-news.com
The first set of fare evasion figures have been released for the Richmond section of the Canada Line. And the numbers — according to one Richmond city councillor — supports the fight to install fare gates to the new public transit system by 2013. Coun. Bill McNulty was one of several city councillors who successfully pressured TransLink to expedite the introduction of turnstiles on the Canada Line. However, McNulty says the estimated 550 tickets issued in Richmond during the first five months of the Canada Line’s inception is just the tip of the fare evasion iceberg. “That’s just the people they’ve caught. And it’s great they get a ticket, but do they pay it? I’m not so sure,” McNulty said. “We need to make sure everyone is paying. It’s a very convenient and quick system, but everyone needs to contribute see McNulty page 6
CHUNG CHOW/RICHMOND NEWS
PHOTO SUBMITTED
Mayor Malcolm Brodie makes a presentation to the new monastery’s Rinpoche Khenchen Thrangu during the official opening on Sunday.
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Kim Strathoplous was decked out for Sunday’s Mad Hatter’s Tea Party Ride, organized by the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition from South Vancouver to London Heritage farm where music, food and bike workshops awaited. Seranading the cyclists was the Steveston jazz trio, Sing 2 Beat.
8171 Westminster Hwy. (at Buswell, one block east of No. 3 Rd.) Walkway access also from Save-On Foods parking lot
Mon-Sat 8:45-6:30 Sun 10-5 (604) 780-4959
07283111
Not long after workmen finished the interior of the new Thrangu Tibetan Buddhist Monastery on No. 5 Road, they discovered a curious phenomenon. The new monastery’s main shrine hall features 1,000 small gold “medicine” Buddhas in sealed glass along the walls. All but five face outwards. Five have been discovered to have pivoted slightly. “We have five Buddhas that turned themselves — we don’t know why,” says Julian Kuo, administrator for the new monastery, which celebrated its grand opening Sunday. “I asked the Lama and Lama just laughed,” Kuo said. “It’s quite a common thing in Tibet.” Roughly 800 people attended Sunday’s grand opening of the only traditional Tibetan “gompa” style monastery in the Pacific Northwest. Located at 8140 No. 5 Rd., the monastery has taken more than three years to plan and build. It was built in Richmond in no small part because its two main sponsors — Eva Lau Wai Ken and her daughter Margaret Lee Pui Man — live in Richmond, which also is renowned for its Highway To Heaven (No. 5 Road, which has a regional religious institution designation). A team of local architects and builders traveled to Nepal and Tibet to study traditional Tibetan style gompas, which differ in style from Buddhist temples styles found in China, Korea and Japan. The monastery features prayer wheels along the outer walls, and three kilograms of 24-karat gold leaf inside and out. The main shrine features a fourmetre tall gold Buddha, 1,000 miniature Buddhas (including five apparently restless ones), and numerous ornate mandalas and thangka paintings