100-year-old Sikh temple in Canada

[Luke]

"Canada's 100-year-old temple

Year-long celebrations planned to honour the Sikh temple, a century-old sanctuary in western Canada..."

http://english.aljazeera.net/video/amer ... 95984.html


I think the story of this temple is pretty amazing. My next question is "Are there any 100-year-old Buddhist temples in any western countries? And have any of these been designated World Heritage sites? If not, why not?"

Perhaps the Sikhs had such success because they were such a tightly knit immigrant community. Many of us Buddhists in the west exist in a fragmented, isolated way, and for this reason, often achieve much less.

[kirtu]

The Kalachakra Temple in St. Petersburg is 95 years old. There should be temples in Hawaii and maybe California over 100 years old but they haven't been in the same place the whole time. The first Jodo Shinshu temple in the US was built in 1899 on the West Coast, I think in San Francisco. And the first Jodo Shinshu temple in what was still the Kingdom of Hawaii was built in 1889.

As it turns out the Shingon Mission in Honolulu is older than I though (going back to 1917) but was added to the US National Register of Historic Places in 2002 on the 100th anniversary of the construction of a Shingon teaching hall in Lahaina, Maui!

Kirt

[Luke]

Cool! I'm glad to see that Buddhists have done similar things in the west.

[Jikan]

Here's an interesting example, even though it didn't last.

http://www.oregonstateparks.org/park_8.php

[nirmal]

"Many of us Buddhists in the west exist in a fragmented, isolated way, and for this reason, often achieve much less.

Existing in a fragmented, isolated way is normal.The problem I think is still ego.When one fragment steps on the other's ego, the ego become swollen.Ego and pride exists between different schools of Buddhism.It is very obvious though all practice no-ego and no-self.All say I have no-self. No one says I have no-school.When we all start saying that we have no-school, then we would be united and closely knit.

[Shutoku]

I don't know about individual Temples, but the Buddhist Churches of America, and the Buddhist Churches of Canada, both celebrated their respective Centennials in the last few years. I actually had the honour of playing the piano for the Centennial service in Western Canada with the Gomonshu in attendance and giving the Dharma talk.

BCA and BCC are Jodo Shinshu and made up largely of Japanese immigrants and their subsequent generations.