Dear Mr. Piya Tan,
I would be much obliged if you could advise me on the vinaya rule in building a sima. Are there any
rules stipulating the direction the entrance of the sima should be facing? Should it be facing East?
We just bought a piece of agricultural land and we plan to build a sima on it. For your information,
in our country (Malaysia), it is illegal to erect any building on agricultural land without first changing
the status of land for religious purposes from the local authorities. However, the procedure to convert
the status of land takes a long time, usually two to three years. We cannot wait that long. We are
planning to build the sima first and later applying to the local authorities to convert the status of land
from an agricultural to a religious land status. Usually, the local authorities have no objections in
converting the status of land but it takes a lot of time due to the difficult procedures to get an approval.
So, do we transgress or violate any of the vinaya rules in building the sima first and
getting the land converted later? Does violating a law mean transgressing any of the vinaya rules in
this context? We wouldn't like to build a sacred building transgressing the vinaya rules to our utmost
sincerity.
Sadhu for your valuable advice