Buddhists breaking new ground in Indiana

Monk has plans to build monastery, temple on 80 acres in Harrison County.

By Grace Schneider

The (Louisville, Ky.) Louisville Courier_Journal

January 26, 2003

CORYDON, Ind. -- The lunch at the Buddha Summit Monastery brightened the simple folding tables.

Bowls of orange sweet potatoes. Green salad with pink plum tomatoes. Mounds of fried egg rolls. Marinated tofu and seaweed wraps.

The young children among the 26 Vietnamese gathered there started to squirm. Before everyone took up chopsticks, they bowed their heads. "In English, please?" asked 11-year-old Than Thanh.

They recited the prayer together -- in English.

The recent lunch, inside an industrial-style building on a remote wooded hillside in western Harrison County, might have struck an outsider as unusual. Nearby Corydon is home to a predominantly white Christian community where pioneers built Indiana's first state capital two centuries ago.

Today there's another pioneering effort -- thanks to a young Buddhist monk, a native of Vietnam who is working to nurture a religious community.

With the help of several Vietnamese families from Louisville, Ky., and southern Indiana, the Rev. Thich Hang Dat intends to build a monastery and temple on an 80-acre site. During the past 18 months, Dat and his congregation have invested $200,000 to create temporary living quarters and a worship hall. Four young novices recently were ordained there and began training.

Dat, 35, who wears Buddhism's traditional shaved head and floor-length golden robes, is trying to strike a harmonious balance with neighbors and the surrounding Christian community.

He has reached out to area pastors and invited people he has met on trips into Corydon to visit and eat lunch. He also has spoken to Sunday school groups at Corydon Presbyterian Church and at the Corydon Christian Church.

Buddhism isn't entirely foreign to Indiana and Kentucky. Indiana has seven Buddhist centers, and Kentucky has at least six.

Buddhism, founded more than 2,500 years ago in India, embraces a life of meditation, nonviolence and discipline as a way to gain true enlightenment. The religion is practiced by an estimated 600 million people worldwide, including up to 2 million in the United States.