Source: The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/21/us/21religion.html
FORT WAYNE, Ind. — The newest Buddhist temple here is a vinyl-sided house on the edge of the prairie. Worship services are so popular that people who arrive late must squeeze into the two-car garage, kneel on the concrete floor and pray between a golden statue of a smiling Buddha and a black Craftsman riding lawnmower.
“For a house, it’s very big, but for a temple, it’s very small,” said Dr. Khin Oo, a physician and president of Dhammarekkhita, a Burmese temple and monastery here.
Fort Wayne, a city of 248,000 people and 606 Christian churches, is in the midst of a Buddhist temple boom. Southeast Asians have opened six temples here in the last seven years, including one for Laotians, two for Burmese and two for Mon, another Burmese ethnic group. Only a handful of Sri Lankans live in Fort Wayne, but they decided to build a temple here anyway because of the city’s strong Buddhist network. Fort Wayne also is an easy drive from Sri Lankan communities in Chicago, Indianapolis and Detroit, said Thalangama Devananda, a Sri Lankan abbot.
Because housing in Fort Wayne is inexpensive, most temples occupy former houses tucked into residential neighborhoods (except the Laotian temple, a former used-car dealership). The Sri Lankans’ altar, for example, sits in the basement recreation room of a three-bedroom house, which the Sri Lankans bought four years ago for $47,000.
Turning a house into a Buddhist temple has often meant uncomfortable compromises with tradition and friction with neighbors. Now Fort Wayne’s Buddhists are building their second generation of temples. Two groups built sizable sheds on their properties last year to create separate spaces for their shrines and monasteries, as is the custom in much of Southeast Asia. Two others recently bought houses on large tracts in rural areas and plan to construct buildings there, where land is cheap and neighbors are few.