Source: Local London
Kent's only Buddhist temple is up and running in Gravesend. Reporter ALISON WHITE looks around the self-funded building and learns about the Buddhists' efforts to demystify their way of life.
FROM outside, Rose Street's temple looks like any other community building.
Inside is an oasis of calm where Buddhists make daily offerings of food to the temple's two resident monks.
However, the metal gates protecting the entrances betray the shaky time the Buddhist community has suffered recently.
Last year, arsonists struck three times at a building in Colyer Road, Northfleet, the Buddhists were trying to convert into a temple.
It became a target for vandals who smashed windows, stripped wooden panelling and threw stones at a Buddhist monk.
The last straw came when the front wall of the building was ripped away by vandals.