Li Kheng Peng

Co-founder of Kechara Forest Retreat for sustainable tourism and leadership training

“We have developed programs that connect our green activities with spiritual development. Something as simple as parting saplings, weeding, pruning can actually incorporate some spiritual aspects. So, there is an end-product that not only generates more green, but also internal wealth”

The Kechara Forest Retreat is an hour’s ride and a world apart from the intensity of Kuala Lumpur. In the lush green 35 acre site there is a meditation camp and a sustainable eco-retreat. Here, Li Kheng teaches universal spiritual principles like patience, tolerance, mindfulness, and compassion to youth groups seeking leadership training. She offers support to practitioners of sustainable living and to followers of the retreat’s founding Buddhist guide. The retreat reflects her deep commitment to sustainability which imbues every detail of its design. This follows ten hectic years spent building global operations for a commercial enterprise with the brand name “Coffee Beans.” Her entrepreneurial ambitions, whether marketing a company or creating a spiritual retreat, follow in the footsteps of her high profile and dynamic mother, Mei Peng, who inherited a rubber plantation and became a very successful housing construction mogul.