By Arjanyai
In Chicago, the two monks were accommodated in a small apartment, a temporary residence where they stayed on for about ten months before moving to the more permanent site of the Temple. The apartment which consisted of only one and, later, two rooms was far too small as it had to be used multipurposely as a living room, bedroom, dining room, office, place of worship and for chanting services, place for holding merit-making ceremonies, for printing work and so on. It was a kind of life that involved tolerance and forbearance, and exemplified the monks' personal ability, personality and maturity. Their behavior brought the monks even more sympathy and cooperation from the people. Then, the administration of The Thai Buddhist Center was transferred to the administrative authority of the monks and the Center was unofficially changed into a so-called Thai Buddhist Temple. Soon after that, on May 17, 2519/1976, The Thai Buddhist Center was legally registered with the Department of State of Illinois under the name of ‘The Thai Buddhist Temple', marking the legal existence of the Temple.
Since the two monks took residence in Chicago and began their religious duties, the work towards erecting the Temple progressed relatively rapidly. Contributions of funds by devoted people in the first month of the monks' residence equalled the total amount of funds collected by the Center throughout the whole period of about two years of its existence. Iri spite of this, however, it was not until the end of the year 2519/1976 that the Temple could be located at its more permanent site. To be sure, the delay was not a matter only of financial problems, but of finding a suitable place and of securing the sale of the place. Meanwhile, the Temple still had to rely on the Japanese temple for a place to hold annual Buddhist holy day celebrations and Thai traditional festivals as it had previously done when it was the Center.
The new place, purchased from the Apostolic Assembly Church at the price of $63,000 consists of a big church building which was turned into the main hall of the Temple; an apartment building which was modified into monks' lodging, and a parking lot, all on a 7,556 square-foot plot of land. Since the Temple was moved there on December 23, 2519/1976, all activities of the Temple including annual celebrations and festivals were held and conducted within its premises. It should also be noted that, like Vajiradhammapadip Temple in New York, the funds for purchasing the site of the Temple were almost all collected from contributions by Thai people in the local area, no financial help having been sought from the motherland of Thailand. As the purchased buildings were old with many worn-out parts, much time and a large sum of money were spent on repair work and improvement.
The Thai name of the Temple, ‘Wat Dhammaram', is an honorary name granted by His Holiness the Supreme Patriarch of Thailand as a shorter alternative for the longer one of ‘Wat Voradhamdhityaram' which he himself conferred on the Temple some time before.
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