By Arjanyai
There were in 2521/1978 five Thai Buddhist temples functioning in different parts of the United States. Here is introductory information about them:
1. Wat Thai of Los Angeles
War Thai of Los Angeles has been the familiar and better-known name of the Thai Buddhist temple in Los Angeles since it was a center officially called the Theravada Buddhist Center, Inc.
The saga of establishing Wat Thai of Los Angeles is a long and complicated one. In 2513/1970, a Thai Buddhist monk was invited to Los Angeles and stayed there for a while, making himself available to a large number of people. He returned to Thailand, but not before enthusiasm to set up a Thai Buddhist temple in Los Angeles had been aroused in a number of devoted Thai Buddhists in that city. In that same year, a Thai-American Buddhist Association was organized and the monk came to Los Angeles again, this time accompanied by two other Thai Buddhist monks invited by a group of devotees for the more specific declared purpose of organizing efforts to found a Thai Buddhist temple. The three monks stayed there throughout the three months of the Vassa-residence, dicussed the idea more fully with the lay community and returned to
Thailand.
The dream came closer to reality when, concurrent with the visit of a senior monk from Bangkok, a Thai student died and the funeral services were held at a Japanese temple. This event made more Thai people determined to establish a temple of their own, and a number of them urged that action be taken to achieve this purpose. In consultation with the monk, a group of Thais held a meeting passing a resolution to the effect that two committees were to be formed, one in Los Angeles and the other in Bangkok, to work towards founding a Thai Buddhist temple in Los Angeles and to collect funds for such a purpose. Shortly afterward, a suburban house at Sepulvada was turned into a monks' residence there on July 6, 2514/1971, the date unofficially regarded as the beginning of the first Thai Buddhist temple in the United States. However, as the site was considered legally improper to be utilized as the site for a temple, the Government would not grant permission to set up a temple there. Thus the monks' residence at Sepulvada became only a temporary unofficial temple.
On December 22, 2514/1971, the so-called temple was filed under the law of the State of California as a nonprofit organization under the name of "The Theravada Buddhist Center, Inc.", the legal and official name of the temple according to the Certificate of Incorporation, marking the official founding of the temple.
In 2515/1972, the temple was moved to the present site at Cantara Street, a 2.2-acre plot of land which was purchased with funds donated by a wealthy man in Bangkok, the father of the chairman of the Temple-Founding Committee in Los Angeles. A group of four monks first took residence there on May 16, 1972. Since then efforts and energy have been concentrated, for the most part, on the work of building and construction and on the collection of funds for such purposes. The main reason for this is that it is the plan of the Committee to erect a full-fledged monastery in the Thai traditional way, equipped with monks' living quarters, temple court and separate sacred buildings, especially the main consecrated hall in Thai style. The new location, with two or three attached antiquated buildings, was large enough to accommodate a sufficient number of religious buildings and structures as required. Most of the old buildings have been pulled down and some new buildings have been erected. However, the main hall, a two-storeyed Thai-style building, the foundation stone of which was laid in 2515/1972, remained under construction and continued for years to occupy the focus of the attention and energy of the Temple group because of its unfinished construction work. A proposal was submitted to the Center's Committee to have the name of the organization legally changed to the popular one of "Wat Thai of Los Angeles" and to make other necessary changes regarding legal regulations to turn the organization into a full-fledged ecclesiastical establishment according to the traditional standards of the
Buddhist Order of Thailand.
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