Source: The Copenhagen Post
http://www.cphpost.dk/news/community/45789-an-unusual-place-to-find-a-thai-temple.html
It may come as a surprise to most people that there is a Thai temple - or wat - located in Denmark. Watpa Copenhagen, situated in a quiet suburban street in the sleepy village of Dragør, on Amager, is unknown to most. The Copenhagen Post paid a visit to the Sunnataram Copenhagen Buddhist Meditation Temple in Dragør and sat down with Abbot Phra Somsak Gandhasilo to discuss what life is like for a Thai Theravada monk living in Denmark.
The five monks currently residing at the 17 year-old temple begin their day at 5.30 with chanting and meditation. This continues until 7.00, when breakfast is eaten. After breakfast, chanting and meditation is again resumed. During this time, the community is welcomed into the temple to take part in ceremonies and donate alms. Lunch is provided at 11.00 – which, for the monks, is the last chance they will get to eat that day as no solid food is allowed after midday. All of the food is supplied entirely from donations offered by the community. Meditation and study is once again resumed after lunch until evening.
‘The community supplies us with material nourishment,’ explained Samsok, ‘and in return we offer them spiritual sustenance.’ And that community is a substantioal one: there are an estimated 20,000 – 25,000 Buddhists living in Denmark, with Asian immigrants and their descendants making up 80 percent of them. Of the 7,700 Thais living in the country, about 95 percent are Buddhist.
In the past, the monks frequently made trips into the busier parts of Copenhagen to receive alms from the community. But the harsh Danish winters and their traditional robes – designed for warmer climes - were ill-suited, and so now meals are cooked in the temple’s kitchen by volunteers from the community.