Save Our Oakland Cambodian Community Buddhist Temple

For more than twenty years Venerable Sam Son, the Abbot of the temple, together with the Oakland Cambodian community established this place, we have come to know as our temple.

On January 5th, 2005 the Oakland Cambodian Buddhist Society Inc. was handed over without the consent of the community and the Abbot to the International Community of Khmer Buddhist Monks Center.

Who are the International Community of Khmer Buddhist Monks Center?

It is a corporation entity established in Massachusetts, with the interest to congregate all Buddhist temples in the United States with or without consent.

What is wrong?

All temples and churches may belong to congregations when it is privately owned or voluntarily joined. However, our temple located on 5212 E10th Street, Oakland Ca. 94601 is community established and purchased. This temple originally belonged to the people, and should remain this way. The people are not interested in the congregation.

Losses from this action:

The temple which the community helped build for the last twenty years is lost along with money over the amount of $100,000 originally for religious and recreational activities.

The Abbot and the original monks, whom we have come to know has been stripped of their positions and replaced with foreign monks.

The community cannot freely enter or exit the temple they once helped build. We all have been denied access to the temple, where we once went to seek comfort, meditation, and to worship.

Youth programs such as mentoring, tutoring, Cambodian lessons, and Khmer traditional dance as well as parenting support i.e. ESL classes have stopped.

The Oakland Cambodian Community in distress:

The community feels intimidated, cheated and viciously taken advantage of.

Only those who consented to the transferring of the property rights to theInternational Community of Khmer Buddhist Monks Center were allowed to enter, exit, and participate in activities within the temple.

The transferring of property rights was only achieved through the misusage of names of people from the community who never gave consent nor were aware of their misrepresentation.

The Oakland community is only one of many temples all over the United States being taken advantage of by the so-call International Community of Khmer Buddhist Monks Center. We are aware of two other incidents located in Massachusetts and New York.

We as a community feel that there is corruption and conspiracy within the previous committee. We feel our voices are not being heard because of a language barrier and miscommunication.

This is a very emotional, heartbreaking, and difficult situation. Thus, we are unable to summarize the total chain of events as they have unfolded. If the Cambodian Buddhist temple is lost, it will be of a great detriment for the Oakland Cambodian community. Please support us in our efforts to save our Oakland Cambodian Community Buddhist Temple by visiting & signing our petition at the bottom of the page.

For further information visit our website at http://www.ocbsr.com

Thank you.