An interesting Thai Buddhist diaspora in Eurasia:<br><br><h2>
<a href="http://www.cphpost.dk/news/community/93-community/45789-an-unusual-place-to-find-a-thai-temple.html" target="_blank">
An unusual place to find a Thai temple </a>
</h2>
<div>
<div>
<span>
Thursday, 28 May 2009 13:50 </span>
<span>
WS </span>
<span>
News </span>
</div>
</div>
<p><strong>A quiet suburban street on Amager conceals a Buddhist temple for Copenhagen’s Thai <br>residents<br></strong> <br>It
may come as a surprise to most people that there is a Thai temple - or
wat - located in Denmark. Watpa Copenhagen, situated in a quiet
suburban street in the sleepy village of Dragør, on Amager, is unknown
to most. The Copenhagen Post paid a visit to the Sunnataram Copenhagen
Buddhist Meditation Temple in Dragør and sat down with Abbot Phra
Somsak Gandhasilo to discuss what life is like for a Thai Theravada
monk living in Denmark.</p><p>The five monks currently residing at the
17 year-old temple begin their day at 5.30 with chanting and
meditation. This continues until 7.00, when breakfast is eaten. After
breakfast, chanting and meditation is again resumed. During this time,
the community is welcomed into the temple to take part in ceremonies
and donate alms. Lunch is provided at 11.00 – which, for the monks, is
the last chance they will get to eat that day as no solid food is
allowed after midday. All of the food is supplied entirely from
donations offered by the community. Meditation and study is once again
resumed after lunch until evening.</p><p>‘The community supplies us
with material nourishment,’ explained Samsok, ‘and in return we offer
them spiritual sustenance.’ And that community is a substantioal one:
there are an estimated 20,000 – 25,000 Buddhists living in Denmark,
with Asian immigrants and their descendants making up 80 percent of
them. Of the 7,700 Thais living in the country, about 95 percent are
Buddhist. </p><p>In the past, the monks frequently made trips into the
busier parts of Copenhagen to receive alms from the community. But the
harsh Danish winters and their traditional robes – designed for warmer
climes - were ill-suited, and so now meals are cooked in the temple’s
kitchen by volunteers from the community. </p><p>Outside, a serene
garden filled with cherry blossom and flowers with a fish pond
surrounds the temple. The garden and buildings are maintained by
members of the community as the monks’ religion does not permit them to
undertake any action that involves cutting – such as gardening.</p><p>Back
inside the temple, the upper floor has been converted into a
magnificently decorated meditation room, complete with illustrated
renderings of the Buddha’s teachings festooned across the walls. It is
here that the monks perform their daily meditative rituals. Among these
rituals is a mental focus on Sankhara (‘that which puts together’). The
characteristics of the Theravada school of Buddhism (which Thai
Buddhists subscrive to) include the concepts of Annica (impertinence),
Dukkha (suffering) and Anatta (not self).</p><p>The meditation centre
has seen a revival over the past few years, with membership numbers
growing from 1250 to 2000 in the last 10 years. And weekends have
become quite busy around the temple. Many visitors, including student
groups from Sweden and tourists from Thailand, have been amongst those
who have come with the aim of learning about the centre. <br>Somsak,
who is originally from Bangkok, said many of those who come to visit
take part in various celebrations such as ‘loy kratong’, or the Thai
festival of light, and Vesak Day, sometimes informally called ‘Buddha’s
birthday’, which celebrates the birth, enlightenment, and death of
Gautama Siddartha, who is better know as the Buddha. </p><p>‘We
currently have anywhere from 30 to 100 visitors during the weekend,’
said the abbot. Funding for the temple relies strictly on monetary
donations provided by these visitors. </p><p>The Dragør monks are
looking forward to a ceremony to be held on 17 October, when the Thai
ambassador, acting on behalf of King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand,
will present them with a ceremonial robe.</p><p>Buddhism was first
introduced into Denmark during the 19th century, when literary works
began to inspire enlightenment thinkers and romantics alike to adopt
the spiritual ways of a distant, yet seemingly recognisable and
rational tradition. Today, Buddhists comprise around 0.5 percent of the
population, making it the country’s fourth largest religion.</p><p>Many
scholars believe there are three different types of Buddhism:
Theravada, or Southern Buddhism, which is a word from the Pali language
(thought to be spoken by the Buddha) meaning ‘the Doctrine of the
Elders’, Mahayana, or Eastern Buddhism and Tibetan, or Northern
Buddhism.</p><p>In the past, there have been attempts to consolidate
the various sects of Buddhism into an all-inclusive organisation which
would transcend cultural and sectarian boundaries. In 1991, Lakha Lama,
a Tibetan-born monk who emigrated to Denmark in 1976, established the
trans-sectarian Buddhist umbrella organisation ‘Buddhist Forum’, which
has been a member of the European Buddhist Union since 1993.</p><p>When
asked what advice he could impart to those curious to learn more about
the Buddha’s teachings, Samsok thought for a moment before saying
‘nobody hurts you more than you hurt yourself.’</p><br><a href="http://www.cphpost.dk/news/community/45789-an-unusual-place-to-find-a-thai-temple.html" target="_blank">http://www.cphpost.dk/news/community/45789-an-unusual-place-to-find-a-thai-temple.html</a><br clear="all">
<font color="#888888">
</font><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Dr. Michael Jerryson<br>Dept. of Religious Studies<br>UC Santa Barbara<br><a href="mailto:mjerryson@gmail.com">mjerryson@gmail.com</a><br>