Minnesota Pagoda Prepares for Buddha Relics

(Photo: WatMunisota.org)

By Neou Sarem, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
21 August 2009

A Cambodian community in Minnesota celebrated a three-day Buddhist ceremony this month, with a groundbreaking ceremony for a new stupa to hold Buddha relics at Wat Munisotaram.

The ceremony, held from 14 to 16 August, marked the 21st anniversary of the pagoda, in Hampton, Minnesota. The Buddha relics to be housed there came from Sri Lanka, which shares Cambodia’s Theravada Buddhism traditions.

Forty-five monks from Khmer, Bangladeshi, Laotian, Thai and Vietnamese temples in the US, Cambodia and Canada attended the ceremony.

A treasure of Buddha

Buddhist Monk Moeng Sang looked over the Relic presentation temple early Friday morning, at the Watt Munisotaram in Hampton that is taking place this weekend to celebrate the arrival of relics of Buddha that will be enshrined there. Monks from Sri Lanka have delivered the relics, and this weekend's "flower festival" at the temple also includes a groundbreaking for a new building on the property in rural Dakota County. (Photo: Tom Wallace, Star Tribune)

A festival this weekend celebrates the arrival of a Buddhist relic at a temple in rural Dakota County.

August 14, 2009
By KATIE HUMPHREY
Star Tribune (Minnesota, USA)

After a trip to India in February, Cambodian Buddhist monk Sang Moeng returned to Watt Munisotaram, his home temple near Hampton, Minn., practically bubbling over with excitement.

The Maha Bodhi Society of India, a group that oversees many Buddhist shrines, including the Tree of Enlightenment, offered to help find a relic of Buddha -- remains believed to be perfect proof of enlightenment, and symbols of wisdom, love and compassion -- for the rural Dakota County temple.

This weekend, Watt Munisotaram hosts a festival to celebrate the arrival of the relic from another temple in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

"We were fortunate to find a temple willing to share a relic with us," Yanat Chhith, a leader of Minnesota's Cambodian Buddhist community, said. "It's a very small piece, but that's good enough."

As many as 2,000 people from around the country and world, including monks from as far away as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, are expected to participate in ceremonies this weekend as the relic of Buddha is enshrined in the temple, located among nondescript farm fields a few miles east of Farmington.

They will also be celebrating the 21st anniversary of the Minnesota Cambodian Buddhist Society, the groundbreaking for a building called a stupa that will eventually house the relic, and a flower festival to raise funds for construction. The celebrations runs through Sunday and the general public, Buddhist and otherwise, is invited to participate.

"Our world is so divided, but here we're all working together," Chanda Sour, a temple board member, said.

Trying to convey the spiritual significance of the relic, Sour and the others said words failed them. "A lot of this is too deep for words," Sour said.

Just preparing for the festival has drawn dozens of volunteers to clean, cut grass, prepare food and decorate the temple. There are between 7,000 and 8,000 Cambodian Buddhist in Minnesota.

Buddhists want 66-foot-high temple south of Fresno

The congregation that obtained a sacred Buddha relic wants to place it atop a 66-foot-high temple. (Photo: DIANA BALDRICA / FRESNO BEE FILE)

Group asks to have zoning rules waived.

09/18/08
By Russell Clemings
The Fresno Bee (California, USA)

Eight months ago, after negotiating with the Thai government, a Fresno Buddhist congregation brought back a sacred Buddha relic from southeast Asia.

Now, the same group wants Fresno County to waive zoning rules so it can build an oversized temple and store the relic in the top of its spire.

Wat Brahmacariyakaram is asking to erect its 66-foot-high "sacred temple" on Orange Avenue between Malaga and American avenues, just south of Fresno.

Thursday, Mike Sayaseng, the congregation's secretary, told the Fresno County Planning Commission that the temple is designed to be "authentic" and modeled after those in southeast Asian countries.

"I am one of many southeast Asian refugees who settled in the Central Valley after the fall of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam in 1975," Sayaseng said. "After a quarter of a century has gone by, and after having saved some money, members of our congregation all express a strong desire to see the most beautiful and authentic sacred temple."

Having a sacred temple will permit young Buddhist men to be ordained as monks without going to Los Angeles or the San Francisco Bay Area, the temple says. It will also give the congregation a place for its relic, purported to be a remnant of the Buddha's breastbone.

"It will be permanently enshrined in the spire on top of the roof of our proposed 66-foot-high sacred temple," Sayaseng said. "The sheer height of this sacred temple will discourage anyone from stealing our most revered Buddha's relic."

But county zoning regulations limit structures in agricultural areas like the temple site to 35 feet. Exceptions can be made under narrow conditions, but planner Jonathan Avedian told the commission the temple didn't qualify.

"Although the applicant indicated cultural and religious reasons for the variance, staff was unable to identify extraordinary circumstances or substantial property-right issues" as required, Avedian said.

Avedian's staff report noted at least six other height variances have been granted for religious buildings in the county over the past decade. One was also granted for a 57-foot Buddhist temple near Clinton and Valentine avenues in 1989. But the report said "each application is evaluated on its own merits."

After some discussion, commissioners seemed ready to approve a variance, but for a structure 55 to 57 feet tall, not 66 feet. They unanimously voted to delay their decision until an unspecified later date to give the temple a chance to revise its plans.

The reporter can be reached at rclemings@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6371.