July 13, 2002
Source: The Salt Lake Tribune
On July 13, 2002 The Salt Lake Tribune reported on the "monk-in-waiting program,... an annual experience offered to young men at Wat Dhammagunaram, a Thai Buddhist Temple in Layton [Utah] where 135 largely southeast Asian families regularly worship... Last week, the young men, aged 8 to 31 and of many different nationalities, followed a rigorous regimen dictated by centuries of Buddhist tradition... Sixteen anxious young males quieted their minds while their heads were shaved and their bodies draped with the saffron robes of a Buddhist monk... They prayed, meditated, studied and fasted for a week."