First published: Saturday, April 25, 2009
Background: Born in Burma (now called Myanmar), studied Buddhism at age 10, became a monk when he was 20 and is now 53. Came to the United States in 2003, was invited by the local Burmese refugee community to set up a temple. Community members pitched in to purchase a three-story house on Broadway in Rensselaer for a temple and monastery.
Assistance appreciated: This Q&A was made possible by temple members Aye Aye Cho, temporary monk Zaw Myat Min, both of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, as well as senior monk Ven. Kheminda, who interpreted the following comments by the abbot and other monks.
Burmese New Year was April 16. Tell us about the tradition.
We celebrate in April because mostly at this time our country is very hot, so the heat makes everybody tired. We wish everybody health, pray for and throw water on each other. That's why it's also called the Water Festival.
How was the local celebration?
We began Friday and did a lot of things for the entire week. Early Saturday, Burmese people offered food to the Buddha, monks and nuns. By 10:30 a.m., they offered lunch, treated others and donated money or things to the monks. The special monks preached, other monks and nuns prayed for a peaceful life. We shared our merit, our good deeds, with others.
Temporary monks – two nuns and four novices – came to the monastery to learn and meditate for one week. People can enter at any time, but we do arrange for special celebrations. Males younger than 19 took the first step by becoming novices, men 20 and older entered as monks. Women can begin at any age.
A monk has to cultivate loving kindness. We can give instruction on how to live peacefully and give counseling for people with a physical or emotional problem.
How does the monastery contribute to the community?
There are, right now, 26 core people providing donations every month, whatever they can afford, because they are devoted to the growth of this monastery.
We can celebrate our culture or traditional ceremonies, regardless of any religion. Even though inside the Burmese community we may have different religions, we have the same culture so anyone can come over here, join and we share food. When Burmese who are not Buddhist do celebrations for their religions, we are also invited; we go there and we have fun. We do this because we want our kids to be introduced to our culture and our religions so that in the future they know where we are from, where their parents are from and what their parents believe. We believe it's a good source to compare religions when they grow up.
— Sharon Hong
