Silver Washington
Wat Thai of Washington D.C.
Wat Thai of Washington, D.C. is viewed as having been founded, informally, when two monks who were invited from Thailand arrived and took residence on July 5, 2517/1974, at a suburban house at 705 Wayne Avenue in Silver Spring. This house was rented by the Buddhist Association in Washington, D.C. for monks’ residence and for use as a seat of Buddhist activities of the Association.
The Buddhist Association in Washington, D.C., the owner of the house, is in turn the outgrowth of a Buddhist group which was formed in the middle of 2514/1971 to conduct Buddhist activities and to advance the cause of Buddhism. The Buddhist Association was granted a Certificate of Incorporation on November 20, 2517/1974, turning it into a legal entity under the District of Columbia Non-profit Corporation Act, thus marking its official establishment. At that time, the efforts of the Association were focused on the collection of funds for the founding of a Thai Buddhist temple or, to be precise, a residence for monks who would participate in Buddhist ceremonies and services on various religious and cultural occasions and conduct other Buddhist activities. Until the coming of the two monks in July 2517/1974, Thai Buddhists in Washington D.C. and nearby areas often resorted to the Washington Buddhist Vihara at 5017-16th Street, N.W., Washington D.C. and its incumbent Ceylonese monks for Buddhist observances, celebrations and religious services. The arrival of monks from Thailand made possible the performance of Buddhist activities fully in accordance with Thai cultural traditions. Due to the shortage of funds, however, the house, which was the first site of the so-called temple on a 8,618 square-foot plot of land, had to be rented for a long period of time.
In June 2519/1976, the Buddhist Association signed an agreement for the purchase of the house at the price of $52,500 and made a 10% deposit, turning it into the property of the Association. On July 7, 2519/1976, a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Buddhist Association was held and a resolution was passed to the effect that the name of the Temple be changed to ‘Wat Buddhamonkol’. The name has not yet come into public usage.
In 2523/1980, a larger house on a 31,000 square-foot plot of land at Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring was purchased at the price of $240,000 and the temple was moved to the new site on the seventh of December of the same year.
During the Vassa period of 2520/1977, there were two monks in residence at Wat Thai of Washington, D.C.
As the capital of the country, Washington, D.C. is the home of diplomatic officials. There are comparatively few Thai of other professions and occupations. Besides Thai diplomatic officials, those who frequent the Temple are mostly students, who, in comparison with those in other big cities, are not numerous. The Temple is quiet most of the day and on most days of the week. Its activities concentrate mainly on the observance and celebration of annual Buddhist holy days and Thai traditional holidays. The Temple also welcomes inquiries put, from time to time, by devoted lay persons and interested occasional visitors. It provides them with answers and explanations on different points of the Buddha’s teaching and on meditation both in theory and in practice. The monthly magazine of the Temple, called ‘Saeng Dhamma’, contains a variety of articles on the Dharma, most of which are in Thai, and news and information about the activities of the Temple.
In September 2519/1976, monks from Wat Thai were invited to participate in a program for oriental wives of military personnel at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. The program was set up by the chaplain there. According to him, “There are many oriental women here, mostly Thais who are married to military personnel”. Since that time, once a month, two monks from Wat Thai Washington, D.C. conduct worship services, teach and counsel at the Dover chapel. Some 50 families participate. At Homestead Air Force base in Florida, a similar program has been established for Thai wives of military personnel there and other local Thai people. However, due to the distance, the monks from Wat Thai go there more infrequently.
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