photograph by Mehn Tala Norm
The author with Bikkhu Bunthat, one of the younger monks at the temple.
Editor’s Note: Mehn Tala Norm is a student in Professor Rebecca Finlayson’s Introduction to Journalism course at Rhodes College. The students taking the course spent time this spring researching and writing about Memphis. They are learning the core principles and techniques of journalistic writing while also learning about their local community.
Weekends are when Watt Dhammaratanaraingsei is the liveliest. “Mostly only during the weekend do people have free time to come together … and time to pay homage to the Buddha,” says Bhikkhu Bunthat, one of the head monks of the temple.
Bhikkhu is the most common cross-cultural term to address monks in the Theravada tradition, the predominant Buddhist tradition in Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Sri Lanka. On a typical week, a group of temple community members, mostly women, come to the temple in weekend mornings with ingredients, cooked food, or both and prepare meals for the monks. They make breakfast and lunch, as monks are only allowed to eat before noon, and they do not leave until late in the afternoon after taking care of necessary errands. “During weekdays …[families] separate the shifts. Before they go to work, they bring the food to offer to the monks,” says the Bhikkhu.
photograph by Mehn Tala Norm
The main entrance to the temple complex. At right is the new ordination hall.
By providing the needs of the sangha (the monastic community) and maintaining the Watt (Wat or Watt is the general term for a temple or monastery in Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand), the community members are increasing their store of good merits. Good merits are their token to be reborn in a superior realm in the afterlife. The Bhikkhus, in return, are also responsible for teaching them the Dharma (Buddha’s teachings) and guiding them towards enlightenment.
Throughout the year, Bhikkhu Bunthat leads Buddhist services and rituals, ranging from administering the five precepts and chanting to household blessings and funeral prayers, for all Cambodian families who are members of the temple living across the Mid-South. On Tuesday and Thursday evenings, Bhikkhu Bunthat also instructs meditation sessions for a few members of the community who gather at the temple to put Dharma into practice.
photograph by Mehn Tala Norm
The original temple hall.
Learning and practicing Dharma is not the only thing that takes place at the monastery. Watt Dhammaratanaraingsei is also a place for social gathering and cultural activities for the community. “For activities, we focus on two. The first one is our traditional culture, and the second is Buddhism,” says Bhikkhu. The biggest celebration of the year at the Watt is Choul Chnam or the Khmer New Year, which falls in the middle of April. “We have a lot of Cambodian food and a lot of fun,” he says. On April 15-17, the whole community came together for merit-making activities, performances such as Cambodian dances and singing, and meals of traditional food.
When it is complete, Memphis will have a Watt that will look and operate as many others across towns and villages in Cambodia.
photograph by Mehn Tala Norm
Members of the temple celebrated the Khmer New Year in April.
Currently, around 150 families in the Memphis area support the temple, which is located in South Memphis. Most of these families escaped the Cambodian genocide of the 1970s as refugees. When they fled their homes, the Khmer Rouge regime embarked on a killing spree to root out and destroy all that was left of Cambodia’s rich culture, traditions, and institutions, including the centuries-old practice of Buddhism.
It took much effort to revive Buddhism in the country after more than 25,000 monks were killed. It was only in 1999, two decades after settling in Memphis, that the elders of the community bought a plot of land at the current location on Bryndal Avenue, dedicated to the religion that they had preserved.
photograph by Mehn Tala Norm
The new ordination hall, currently under construction.
The hall’s completion will symbolically make Watt Dhammaratanaraingsei a full-fledged Buddhist monastery. Bhikkhu offered a tour of the hall, a majestic structure on an elevated platform, with tall, inverted V-shaped tiered roofs and pillars surrounding the central enclosed hall, with an interior well-lit with daylight streaming through the tall windows.
“We have ordered a Buddha statue, spires, and ornate decorations from Cambodia for the hall,” says the Bhikkhu with excitement. When it is complete, Memphis will have a Watt that will look and operate as many others across towns and villages in Cambodia.
Source: Wallace, Charles P. “Culture: Buddhism Rising Again From the Ashes of Cambodia: The Khmer Rouge used genocide to try to eradicate the religion. Its comeback is slow but steady,” LA Times, June 19, 1990.
