[Tlc] Thai Buddhist diaspora in Denmark

[Michael Jerryson]

An interesting Thai Buddhist diaspora in Eurasia:

 An unusual place to find a Thai temple
<http://www.cphpost.dk/news/community/93-community/45789-an-unusual-place-to-find-a-thai-temple.html>
 Thursday, 28 May 2009 13:50 WS News

*A quiet suburban street on Amager conceals a Buddhist temple for
Copenhagen’s Thai
residents
*
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.

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.

‘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.

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.

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.

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).

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.
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.

‘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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.’

http://www.cphpost.dk/news/community/45789-an-unusual-place-to-find-a-thai-temple.html


-- 
Dr. Michael Jerryson
Dept. of Religious Studies
UC Santa Barbara
mjerryson at gmail.com
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