Buddha Mountain Center breaks ground on future site

The Buddha Mountain Center (BMC) in Roanoke is expanding and growing rapidly as to the needs of its thriving community that will ultimately welcome even more worshippers into a bigger and more spacious temple. On Sunday, August 24 an outstanding groundbreaking ceremony was held to mark the start of a journey to build Roanoke’s first full-scale Buddhist temple. The move marks an incredible step for senior monk Thich Chuc Do and the followers of this Vietnamese community.

Thich Chuc Do, leader of the temple, embarked on his path to becoming a monk at the very young age of 12. With both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in linguistics at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Saigon, he moved from Vietnam to Virginia Beach. Years later, he visited Roanoke and felt a strong connection with the area and the vibrance of its people.

He started the first services in a Roanoke hotel meeting room. The community grew and they renovated a small office building on Florist Road.The temple sits nestled below a massive 14 ft. granite statue of Kwan-yin the Buddhist goddess of compassion that blesses the spirit of a benevolent community that continues to thrive.

With respect to the the Buddha Mountain Center’s purpose to enhance human consciousness and connect people, Thich Chuc Do established English services to welcome the larger Roanoke community and to accommodate the youth that aren’t accustomed to their native language. The center is one of several Buddhist communities actively practicing in the Roanoke Valley, others include the Dharmapala Kadampa Buddhist Center, Stone Mountain Zendo and Heart of the Blue Ridge Sangha.

The land on which the new Temple will sit is technically in Roanoke County and was purchased by BMC in 2022. The name of the road leading to the site was also changed and once erected the address at the new temple will proudly be 4904 Buddha Mountain Road.

The development of the new temple, now in progress and 40% complete, comes with considerable challenges as an additional $1.7 million needs to be raised. To realize this very ambitious and promising project, Thich Chuc Do and his congregation need monetary support. Reportedly Phase 1 of the project is halfway through completion, but the cost has risen to over $2 million for the 9,000 sq. ft. development.

Thich Chuc Do also explained how the center is working toward achieving their vision. So far, the temple has raised $200,000 in donations and $160,000 through the group’s monthly Vietnamese food sales. The goal is to use the facility’s newly excavated 2.6 acre space off Hershberger Road to build the temple complete with a meeting hall, a monastic residence, classrooms for children, kitchen and dining hall. Presently the center’s worshippers gather where it all began at the small but well situated temple on Florist Rd. nestled below a 20 ft. statue a short distance from the new temple site.

“Phat Son Temple will become a reality, not only a place of worship it will be a true spiritual home – a light of Dharma in Roanoke where people of every background may find peace … for generations to come,” said Thich Chuc Do graciously speaking in English from the stage.

In an effort to save money Thich Chuc Do plans to do as much of the work themselves by using the skills of his temple’s extremely industrious members and reaching out to volunteers. He has proven himself to be quite the handyman involving upgrades (construction, electricity, plumbing, etc) he’s made to the present facility. The community’s goal is to make the new temple deadline within two years, else it will reportedly face enormous fines.

Tom Willard is a founding member of the English language group at BMC. He first visited the temple two years ago and was instrumental in developing the English services that began April of 2024. Currently the English service has 15 to 20 attendees who gather Sundays at 8:30 am while services in Vietnamese are held later at 10:30 am.

The week-long series of events marking the groundbreaking as a milestone for BMC started Monday, Aug. 18 with a group of monks who over a five-day period meditated intermittently while meticulously creating an elaborate sand mandala on the temple floor only to demolish it at week’s end in a display of impermanence. The project, they said, contributes to their enlightenment and also helps to raise awareness and funds for their home, the Drepung Gomang Monastery in India.

The final day, Sunday was all about the long-awaited celebration that took place on the new site under a massive tent. The event was attended by many Buddhist followers from all over the region, the country and abroad. Among them nuns like Thich Chuc Do’s sister who came from Vietnam, members of the Virginia Beach Dong Hung Temple and twenty-five monks from various regions near and far. The sacred celebration, conducted in Vietnamese and English, was one with much cultural pageantry, songs, dance and a traditional vegetarian meal served at its close.

Among those who spoke was Mayor Joe Cobb who delivered a speech that was translated in Vietnamese. The mayor also sat in meditation with the monks earlier in the week during the Sand Mandala ceremony.

“During their chanting and meditation a great storm arose all around us,” said the mayor referring to the torrential rains that fell that day while the group was in session. “Yet we sat in peace, remembering that when the storms of life are all around us we can be at peace within.”

“As we lay the foundation for the new temple may we remember that we are one transforming this sacred space in our lives with the essence of loving kindness and spiritual harmony,” he continued to the delight expressed by all in attendance.

During one of the most enchanting moments in the celebration, a congregation of monks approached the stage – gathered in formation and began to engage in a deep vibrational chanting session. It was a moment totally surreal and outside of anything imaginable by most westerners. It was a christening moment of unification that one could feel – that touched the core of human consciousness itself promoting the sacredness of true spirituality.