May 21, 2007
Source: Orlando Sentinel
A Buddhist tradition found its place in a grand new home Sunday morning.
It was the first Bathing of the Buddha ceremony at the new Guang Ming Temple north of Hoffner Avenue in southeast Orange County.
Last year's Bathing of the Buddha ceremony was in the temple's temporary home, an industrial park.
Before that, spiritual leaders had performed the ceremony in "very small places," said James Murphy, a member of and spokesman for the Guang Ming temple. "It was very constrained. It was very restricted."
On Sunday, about 300 people prayed and chanted at the spacious new temple, in front of a massive white-marble Buddha imported from Burma.