CTTB Float Wins First Place in County Parade Again
On Sunday, September 22, the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas (CTTB) entered a float in the annual Mendocino County Fair and Apple Fest Parade. The float, whose theme was ' In Great Compassion, We Are One,' received first place in its category again. More than sixty students, parents, and teachers participated in CTTB's float unit, which featured an 80-foot-long green dragon stretching from the front of a pickup to the end of a trailer decorated with clouds and ocean waves. The trailer carried about fifteen students dressed in ethnic costumes representing China, India, Mexico, Ireland, Nigeria, the United States, and other nations. Parents, teachers and friends holding Dharma Realm Buddhist Association flags walked behind the trailer.
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A second pickup carried a white-robed Guanyin Bodhisattva (a student) surrounded by nuns and younger students chanting "0m Mani Padme Hum' under a tent-like roof decorated with flowers.
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As the float traveled down the main street of Boonville, bystanders often waved or clapped in appreciation or even chanted along. When the float unit passed by the judges' stand, the boy students hoisted the dragon from the truck and entertained the judges and crowd with a lively dragon dance to the staccato rhythm of drum and cymbals.
Meanwhile, in the Fairgrounds, the Jyun Kang Vegetarian Restaurant (of CTTB)' s booth attracted a steady stream of visitors hungry for delicious, wholesome food, a welcome alternative to the usual fare of junk food available at such events.
Copied from the back page of Vajra Bodhi
Sea, Issue 389, October 2002.