11th Annual Lotus and Bamboo Festival
and
2553rd Buddha’s Birthday Celebration (Vesak)
Summary
The 11th Annual Lotus and Bamboo Festival was a festival to remember. Hurricane Ike had damaged the gardens when it passed through Southeast Texas last year, however by festival time, through care and many hours of labor, the gardens were spectacular. The bamboo was rejuvenated; the lilies and lotus flowers sprang forth from their underwater hiding places and blossomed to the joy of everyone.
Festival preparations were well underway by March for the festival which is traditionally held the first full weekend in June. This year the festival held the 6th and 7th was an outstanding event. Each previous year the temple has been fortunate and thankful for the congregational members and volunteers who give of their time, energy and finances to assist in the preparation and execution of our annual event. Festival preparations start in March and the volunteers start to arrive and begin the task of renewing the gardens and grounds. They work alongside Most Venerable Viet and Bhante Kassapa in cleaning away the old and dead vegetation, as well as fertilizing the lotus and lilies, repairing ponds and planting new plants. Most Venerable Viet relied heavily this year on Bhante Kassapa’s assistance in the garden preparation and supervision of the volunteers.
Most Venerable Viet had a wonderful opportunity to travel and share the Dhamma in Europe with the Most Venerable Ho Giac, Most Venerable Buu Phuong, and Venerables Giac Dang and Tri Tinh. Also The Abbot has been extremely busy with the new temple project in Houston. Bhante Kassapa envisioned and over saw the redesigning of Garden A. A new path garden path was installed for festival patrons which will eventual encompass the entire garden.
Plants were reorganized and statuary put in place enhancing the gardens appearance and mood, creating a meditative space for all to enjoy. Bhante Kassapa revitalized the bonsai green house, which was heavily damaged during Hurricane Ike. The bonsai house has become a primary point of focus for visitors to enjoy
The Abbot, monks and staff greatly appreciated the Buu Mon Temple’s Lion and Dragon Dance Troupe and the Lotus Dance troupe as well as Phat Luan Temple’s uniformed youth groups and Boy Scouts (BSA) from Houston and Dallas for playing an important part in the setting up of the festival grounds, erecting tents, merchandising t-shirts, cold drinks, snow cones etc. In addition, the Houston and Dallas scouting group created a bamboo arch way over the main entrance to the festival grounds to welcome all visitors. The festival would be lacking if not for the help and support of the various youth organizations for our various celebrations. We wish to thank our temples Lion and Dragon Dance Troupe and the Lotus Dancing Troupe for their many hours of work during the festival.
Festival goers again this year visited with old friends, vendors who have been involved with the festival for many years and were introduced to new acquaintances with the addition of new vendors to the festival this year. The Texas Bamboo Society was on hand again this year selling their bamboo and bamboo crafts and sharing their knowledge of the bamboo culture with everyone. The Buu Mon Buddhist Temple’s Meditation Group was out in full force assisting and directing visitors as well as manning their booths which offered for purchase foods, chips, links, drinks, Buddhist books and array of malas, and various Buddhist items. Congregational and visiting vendors made available Vietnamese cuisine, craft items, photography, and bonsai’s for purchase.
Buu Mon Buddhist Temple has an ongoing Vietnamese Language class. Bhante Kasssternapa’s also reaches out to the community through the federal prison ministry. We encourage the participation of non-profit community outreach organizations in our annual festival. We were fortunate to have a variety of non-profit organizations join us this year to make the public aware of what their organizations had to offer the Southeast Texas community.
Buu Mon Temple was very happy to sponsor Boat People SOS, Inc., Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center of Southeast Texas, Southeast Texas Hike and Bike Coalition, Texas P. R. I. D. E. Crisis Counseling, Spindletop MHMR, and USA Center for Rural Public Health Preparedness – Hurricane Ike Registry were on hand to distribute literature and answer questions the festival goers may have had about their individual organizations.
The festival goers were in the gardens early and the crowds lasted until the end of the day Saturday and Sunday. A big hit this year was the tea lecture given by Bhante Kassapa and the temple and garden tours lead by Matt Rhone (Sucara) and Tom Harlan (Sapurissa).
The visitors were, as they are each Lotus and Bamboo Festival, interested in what knowledge the Texas Bamboo Society had to share with them concerning landscape use of bamboo. Since Hurricane Rita and Ike more and more people are investigating bamboo for a variety of uses in their yards and gardens due to the hardiness and easy adaptation of bamboo to the Southeast Texas environment. Each year more and more of our festival goers are returning to experience the variety of Vietnamese cuisine available. This year’s visitors could not get enough of their delicious Vietnamese food. Visitors wandered the gardens taking pictures and enjoying the large variety of lotus, bamboo, water lilies, bonsai and other tropical and regional plants. They also took time to visit the shrine room and view our large Buddha statue and mural.
Sunday morning the festival opened to another day of beautiful weather with a record number of visitors coming to enjoy the gardens and attend the 2553rd Vesak (Buddha’s Birthday) Celebration. Buddha’s Birthday Celebration was very well attended by Buddhist parishioners and visitors with three bus loads coming from Houston along. This year the celebration started at 10:00 am in the morning with the entrance of the resident and visiting venerable monks and nuns. The venerable monks and nuns from various temples chanted the timeless chants so essential to Theravada Buddhism, paying homage to the life of our Lord Shakyamuni Buddha.
The Buddha’s Birthday Celebration was attended by venerable monks and nuns from Houston, Florida, Canada and Port Arthur representing the Vietnamese, Sri Lanka, and Thai traditions. After the venerable monks and nuns blessed the statue of the baby Buddha they chanted while the congregation and visitors bathed the baby Buddha with long stemmed rose dipped into the water. The 2553rd Vesak Celebration also included the induction of 5 new members into the Buddhist faith. Port Arthur City Mayor Deloris Prince, Port Arthur City Manager Steve Fitzgibbons and Port Arthur Convention and Visitor Bureau representative Patti Salter were in attendance with the Mayor speaking to audience offering well wish to all in attendance. We at Buu Mon Buddhist Temple sincerely appreciate the Mayor, the City
Manager and the PACVB continued support of Buu Mon Buddhist Temple and its various events. At the end of the ceremony all visitors to the festival and ceremony were feed a traditional Vietnamese vegetarian as long standing custom of the Vietnamese Theravada Buddhist faith.
This year’s Lotus and Bamboo Festival and Buddha’s Birthday Celebration attendance was estimated to be larger than previous year’s celebrations with visitors attending from other area in Texas as well as from out of state. It was noted that we had people from all over the south join in the festivities.
We are continuing to have people visit the gardens from out of state. The success of this year’s festival is due in large part to the excellent media coverage we received prior to the event. We thank the following media organizations for their continued support of the Buu Mon Buddhist Temples annual Lotus and Bamboo Festival as well as their coverage of all our events. They are: The Port Arthur News, Beaumont Enterprise, American Press, The Examiner, Guidry News, KBTV-Fox 4 TV {NBC}, KFDM-TV {CBS} Channel 6 and KBMT-TV {ABC} Channel 12 as well as various Houston’s Saigon Radio and Little Saigon Radio stations, Dallas Vietnamese and Chinese Radio, TV and Newspapers organizations. Without their continued interest in the activities of Buu Mon Buddhist Temple we would be limited in our ability to inform the public of our celebrations.
We were fortunate to have the support and sponsorship of various groups again this year. The event was sponsored in part by: Jefferson County Tourism Commission; Motiva Enterprises, LLC; Duong & Le, LLC; The Texas Bamboo Society; Tri M. Le, D.D.S.; Dr. Hau P. Dang M.D.; Kay Electronics, Inc. and Buu Mon Buddhist Association.
We sincerely thank all of you who attended and assisted the Buu Mon Buddhist Temple with this year’s 11th Annual Lotus and Bamboo Festival and 2553rd Buddha’s Birthday (Vesak) Celebration. The venerable monks and staff are looking forward to seeing you again for many more years.
May the Blessings of the Triple Gem Be with you all,
Namo Buddhaya,
Most Venerable Thich Huyen Viet, Abbot
Buu Mon Buddhist Temple
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