2,530th Birthday of Buddha Marked

Many Los Angeles area Buddhists gathered in and around a temple in the Wilshire District on Sunday to celebrate the 2,530th anniversary of the birth of the man for whom their religion was founded.

In the courtyard of the temple, once a three-story apartment building, a saffron-robed monk recited Buddhist scripture at an altar bedecked with flowers, fruit and candlesticks around a picture of the infant Buddha, standing over an open lotus flower. Several hundred men, women and children crowded into the narrow space.

Most of the people present were of Vietnamese or Vietnamese-Chinese origin. One of them explained that the birthday of Buddha, the north India prince who renounced power and wealth to preach a doctrine of humility and unselfishness, is observed in different weeks by members of differing branches of Buddhism.

Nearby, in front of the International Zen Institute and the International Buddhist Mediation Center, were yellow-and-red banners asking that the Communist rulers of the now-united Vietnam release all political prisoners, including incarcerated Buddhist monks and nuns. Many South Vietnamese Buddhists opposed the U.S.-supported South Vietnamese government.