Buddhist Temple Anything but Serene

Three months ago, a Buddhist master consecrated the new Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple in Hacienda Heights as a vehicle to “bring the spiritual culture of the East to the material culture of the West.”

Since then, “material culture” has threatened to overwhelm the stunning 10-building hillside temple complex on Hacienda Boulevard, with its glazed-tile ocher roofs and its resident group of monks and nuns.

In the temple’s quest to find tranquility in the suburbs of the eastern San Gabriel Valley, it has recently run afoul of the county Fire Department, Supervisor Pete Schabarum, cantankerous neighbors and a legion of litigious creditors.

Since opening ceremonies and an international Buddhist conference in November, the $25-million temple, the largest Buddhist monastery and temple complex in the Western Hemisphere, has been:

* Virtually closed down by county fire officials, who have ordered the Buddhists to limit the number of devotees in their 800-capacity main temple to 49 because of fire code violations.

* Publicly chastised by Schabarum, who threatened the group with loss of its operating permit after a tangle of unruly motorists celebrating the Chinese New Year descended on the temple three weeks ago.

* Involved in a series of disputes between general contractors and subcontractors.

In the meantime, the 14-acre temple complex remains largely unused. Small groups of tourists wander through, marveling at the mansard-roofed buildings and displays of Buddhist statuary, and workmen continue putting the finishing touches on various buildings.

Hope to Open Soon

“We have no activities at this time, except for morning and evening chanting,” said the Rev. I-Han, spokeswoman for the group, whose parent organization is from Taiwan. “We hope to be open as soon as possible.”

The resident group of 40 Buddhists, who shave their heads and dress in traditional flowing robes, have taken it all in stride.

“Of course, if you go to a foreign country, you have some difficulties,” I-Han said. “If we can deal with the difficulties with a peaceful, calm mind, that will help a lot.”

But some of the temple’s neighbors are still seething about the lack of peace and calm they say they have experienced because of increased traffic in their neighborhood, particularly along Hacienda Boulevard, one of the community’s main thoroughfares.

“There have been crowds ever since November,” said Sharon Pluth, a longtime opponent of the temple who lives several blocks north of it. “But Feb. 6, Chinese New Year, was the worst.”

On that day, according to Capt. Bill Stonich of the sheriff’s station in Industry, about 2,000 people, flushed with pride in the new temple, arrived there uninvited. Cars jammed Hacienda Boulevard and were parked illegally up and down the boulevard. Drivers negotiated U-turns across oncoming traffic and dropped passengers off in the middle of the street.

“There was congestion and danger,” Stonich said.

Neighbors complained that not only was the traffic so bad that they were blocked from entering or leaving the narrow residential streets off Hacienda Boulevard, but that they were also disturbed by the noise of firecrackers.

“All the residential streets were filled with parked cars, and Hacienda Boulevard was a zoo,” said Pluth, who alerted Schabarum’s office.

Schabarum, who had been instrumental in getting county approval to build the temple, reacted angrily. He wrote to temple officials, charging that the gathering violated the terms of the conditional-use permit under which the temple is operating. He warned that “a similar violation in the future will result in a request that the Regional Planning Commission hold a revocation hearing” on the permit.

He also alerted county fire and law enforcement authorities to pay “particular attention” to the temple.

Strong Warnings

“The warnings were as strong as you can get,” Schabarum said in an interview. “I would be a complainer (under the circumstances) too, if I were trying to move up or down Hacienda Boulevard or from a side street.”

Temple spokesmen said the size of the crowd of visitors that day was a surprise to everyone. “It was completely beyond anybody’s contemplation,” said Patrick Huang, the temple’s attorney. “No program was planned at the temple, except that on Chinese New Year, religious people generally pay respects to their religious leaders.”

He said that nuns at the temple were “horrified” by some celebrants setting off firecrackers.

“It was a lot like living at a lake somewhere and having all your relatives come and visit you at once,” said a sympathetic Barbara Lee Fish, president of the Hacienda Heights Improvement Assn., a county advisory group representing the unincorporated community.

The Buddhists have promised to alert authorities if they anticipate any similar outpourings in the future, and the county Department of Public Works is studying Schabarum’s request that it place “No Parking-Tow Away” signs along Hacienda Boulevard. Public areas of the temple now have signs, in English and Chinese, warning “No Firecrackers.”

Temple officials are also working to resolve the difficulties with county fire inspectors. According to Capt. Jesse Perez of the county fire prevention unit, about 10,000 niches that line the walls of the main temple do not meet fire safety requirements.

The niches, each of which contains a tiny Buddha figure, were manufactured in Taiwan. They are made of polyurethane, “a very smoky type of substance which is also highly flammable,” Perez said.

“They (the Buddhists) were given a couple of alternatives,” he said. “Either remove the niches or ‘sprinkler’ the building. In the meantime, we can’t allow them to (fully) occupy it.”

The Buddhists have elected to remove the niches from a small entrance temple, but those in the main temple will be protected by a sprinkler system. Perez said that plans for the system have been submitted to the Fire Department. “To install it, we’re talking two or three months at least,” he said.

Three seven-foot gilded Buddha statues, which preside over the main temple, have not been tested for flammability, Perez added. “They tell us that they’re made of (non-flammable) fiberglass, but until we get something in writing, we can’t take their word for it.”

‘Serious Religious Uproar’

Huang said that the Buddhists are trying to get some proof from the Taiwanese manufacturer. “At this point in time, we have a directive from the Fire Department that, if we’re unable to prove that the Buddhas are non-combustible, we’re going to have to remove them,” Huang said. “That’s going to cause a very serious religious uproar.”