Winner gives Buddhists a boost

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BY BOB REEVES / Lincoln Journal Star

For four years, members of Lincoln’s Vietnamese Buddhist community have scrimped and saved for their dream of a new temple. Now they’re $400,000 closer — thanks to a gift from Powerball winner Quang Dao.

Dao, who has been active in the Linh Quang Buddhist Center, dropped by the existing temple at 216 W. F St. a couple of Sundays ago and more than doubled the pot.

“He specified that the money be spent on the new temple,” said Holly Le, a spokeswoman for the center.

[+]Enlarge

Buddhist Abbot Thich Phap Tri in the temple grounds at 216 W. F Street. The temple received $400,000 from one of the recent Powerball winners. The abbot created the statue in the foreground; the other was imported from Vietnam. Both would be on the grounds of a new temple. (William Lauer)

Buddhist Abbot Thich Phap Tri in the temple grounds at 216 W. F Street. The temple received $400,000 from one of the recent Powerball winners. The abbot created the statue in the foreground; the other was imported from Vietnam. Both would be on the grounds of a new temple. (William Lauer)

The Vietnamese Buddhist community bought 20 acres in 2002 at Southwest 33rd Street and West Pleasant Hill Road for a new temple.  The converted house they’re in now has been used for worship, prayer and meetings since the early 1990s. 

The temple serves about 1,000 Vietnamese Buddhists living in Lincoln. 

Dao was not available for comment Thursday, but was invited to a May 13 groundbreaking and the annual celebration of Buddha’s birthday on Sunday at the West F Street temple.

“It has been the dream of the whole community to have a bigger temple,” said Thich Phap Tri, abbot of the temple. “This has been a long time coming.”

Dao was one of eight employees of Lincoln’s Cook’s food processing plant who shared the largest Powerball jackpot in U.S. history in February.

Each winner received $15.1 million after taxes. Dao reportedly planned to spend some of the money building homes for himself and other family members in south Lincoln. He also was one of three winners who gave nearly $6,000 to residents of the People’s City Mission on April 4.

Dao and his family have been active in the temple for years, Le said. He has four sons and a daughter, some of whom participated in the Buddhist youth group.

Dao’s donation, combined with the $300,000 already raised, gets the community about halfway to its $1.4 million project cost.

Le said she hopes the groundbreaking will demonstrate the project is moving ahead and encourage more people to contribute.

“Our community is so small … and most of us work in factories, so doing fundraising has not been easy,” she said.

Don Schleining of Schleining Architects has worked with the community on plans for the new center and its 6,585-square-foot pagoda, which would house the main altar and meeting rooms. Also planned:  a 2,800-square-foot education building and a 2,800-square-foot living quarters for monks.

The grounds will include a pond, gardens and statuary that now is part of a shrine at the current site. A white statue of a bodhisattva and a sculpture of a mountain with a small pine tree, created by the abbot, will be moved the new site.

On May 10, Schleining and members of the Lincoln Buddhist community will visit a temple in Houston to get ideas for how the exteriors of the building should look.

The new center will have more space for indoor and outdoor events and Buddhist youth activities, which involve about 50 teens each week.  Future programs could include classes in Vietnamese language and culture open to the entire community.

“Building a new temple is very, very important for all the people in the community,” said Thu Bui, a member of the temple since 1993.

Buddhism is a central part of Vietnamese culture, he said. Even though many Vietnamese living in Lincoln are Roman Catholics, they attend major Buddhist events,   such as the Buddha birthday celebration, Bui said. 

“It will be good for the next generation to know about their culture and traditions.”

Reach Bob Reeves at 473-7212 or at breeves@journalstar.com.

Breaking groundA groundbreaking ceremony for the new temple is planned for 9:30 a.m. May 13 at Southwest 33rd Street and West Pleasant Hill Road.