Chua Bo De

History

The Chua Bo De Buddhist Temple was built in 1983. The monk that built the temple is no longer there. When he left, he gave the temple to a monk named Thich Thong Duc. In 2012, Monk Thich Thong Duc left the temple in order to take charge of his temple in Houston. At the moment there is no official head monk, there is only two female monks that live on the temple's ground and a male monk that comes every few weeks. The temple name "Bồ Đề" is a Vietnamese transcription of the Bodhi Tree's name, the tree that Buddha sat under when he reached enlightenment.

Architecture and activities

The Chua Bo De temple is located outside of New Orleans in the Belle Chase area. The temple's architecture is a Vietnamese traditional decoration and reflects the look of a Southeast Asian temple. The surrounding area of the temple is mainly undeveloped, trimmed carefully and has a lot of benches. The main temple is a single and square building which has the size of a four-bedroom house. At the entrance of the temple, there are two guardian lions.

The interior part of the temple consists of a large prayer room, a large room for classes and social events, a kitchen, and two small praying rooms for worship of ancestors and Quan Công (a Vietnamese title of Guan Yu). In addition, the temple has two attached living quarter for the resident monks.

The temple serves as a community center for the local Vietnamese community and a few non-Vietnamese. It holds regular services on Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 11:00 a.m and other special Buddhist ceremonies such as Vesak. In addition, the temple also provides Vietnamese language and the Buddhist teaching classes for children on every Sunday.