Wednesday, January 13, 2010

5-year Oakland Buddhist temple battle ends


Oakland Cambodian Buddhist Temple members return 5 years after they took back their temple in Oakland on Jan. 12, 2010. The Cambodian Buddhist community has been in a legal battle over the temple on E. 10th St. A court order came down giving the community the right to the temple that had been occupied by the Int'l Community of Khmer Buddhist Monks Center (Laura A. Oda/Staff).

(Oakland Tribune) Buddhists are perceived as being above church politics. But a bitter five-year battle over an Oakland temple pitted two Cambodian Buddhist organizations against each other and gave rise to restraining orders, threats, and allegations of stealing.

The struggle ended Monday afternoon in a nondescript chamber of the California Superior Court on Oak Street with a simple decision that boiled down to one thing: the Oakland Cambodian Buddhist Temple nonprofit has a right to its East 10th Street center and temple.

The center had been taken over in 2005 by the Massachusetts-based International Community of Khmer Buddhist Monks Center. "We had to endure a lot of pain and suffering to achieve this," said Christina Sam, the daughter-in-law of the center's founder, Sam Son. More>>

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