HUNDREDS of people gathered at Quang Minh Buddhist Temple on Thursday night to celebrate the first Ramadan Iftar meal held at the Braybrook site.

Dining were state MPs, councillors, police and emergency services officers, academics and leaders of the Muslim and Buddhist communities.

During Ramadan (this year held from August 20 to September 20), Muslims abstain from eating or drinking between sunrise and sunset.

After guests arrived at Quang Minh, an 'azan', or call to prayer, was made. The fast was then broken by eating a date and drinking water. After prayers, a buffet meal prepared by the temple and AIS was served.

Diner Hilmi Hussein, of the Sunshine Cyprus Turkish Islamic Society, said he was fascinated to see inside a Buddhist temple complex. "It's a great thing to be part of. Probably I would never come here [but for this event], so it's a wonderful thing."

Muriel Alexander, deputy principal at St Monica's Primary School in Footscray, added: "It's about breaking down the barriers and understanding each other."

Temple abbot Venerable Phuoc Tan said it was a great opportunity to build better relationships among community groups.

"I've been to a few Iftar dinners ... through the food we build a friendship. We're trying to bring awareness to everyone in the area that this event is a chance to make friendships and for the local people to get involved."

The next day, the temple hosted 'A Taste of Faith', an interfaith forum for young people in the west. Speakers were Victorian multicultural commissioner Elizabeth Drozd, Imam Ali Kursat Turgut of the Thomastown mosque, Father Gregory Bourke of StPeter Apostle Mission Parish in Hoppers Crossing, and Venerable Phuoc Tan.