Visiting the Museum of World Religions and
The Book of Inter-religious Peace Exhibition
Thursday, May 14, 2009 at 2:00pm

On May 14th, I visited the Museum of World Religions and The Book of Inter-religious Peace exhibition by Dr. Dorit Kedar, a world famous Israeli artist, along with another twenty some WTIC members. Mr. Raphael Gamzou, Israeli representative in Taiwan gave us a warm personal welcome.

The Museum of World Religions guides visitors with a water wall followed by the Pilgrims Way decorated with giant pillars on the right and pictures of major religious pilgrim rituals on the left to transform busy minds to a calmed one ready for the exhibitions of the Museum. Questions projected on the pillars ask visitors to think where and how life was first formed and what its meaning is.

At the end of the Pilgrims Way, many of us pressed hands on a body-temperature-reduced wall to see the handprints appearing and disappearing along with the increase and decrease of the hand-warmth, If our life is like the appearance and disappearance of our handprints on the wall, what is the meaning of our life? We were then led to watch an orientation film introducing the various concepts of the origin of life by different religions. Onto the Golden Lobby where the concepts of time from different cultures were introduced. In the Hall of Life’s Journey, we learned how people from different cultures recognized each passage of life, the rituals and expectations for them and with these, how they cultivated their spiritual life to reach their god(s). The Chinese/English guides explained further with some representative religious edifices presented in the Great Hall of World Religions. We were amazed by the collections and the meticulous arrangement of the exhibition.

Inspired by various religious philosophies, The Book of Inter-religious Peace exhibiting in the museum is the product of Dr. Kedar’s 40 years of philosophical, theological and artistic research. Dr. Kedar utilizes unsophisticated, geometric images, figures of animals, plants and insects, and calligraphy to present subtly an inter-religious perspective. Mr. Gamzou stated in his welcome speech “it is very meaningful to show Dr. Kedar’s artworks in the Museum of World Religions Although these two approaches are with different cultural backgrounds, they see the shared truth i.e. love, among different religions, and seek to propagate mutual respect helping people make peace with those of other religions.”

I am happy to have joined this visit to know of the treasure. However, two hours are far from enough to learn all the knowledge and inspiration the Museum can provide. I am looking forward to learning more on my next visits.

- - - J. Lee