Buddhists Gather to Offer Monks Robes, Fellowship

Honoring an ancient Buddhist tradition that allows monks to don a new robe just once a year, about 500 members of Southern California’s prominent Thai community gathered Sunday to take part in the kathina , a ceremonial robe offering that is one of the most important Buddhist holidays of the year.

The ceremony, which took place at the Garden Grove Community Center, spanned nearly seven hours, including an elaborately catered lunch and two hourlong meditation sessions. But the event’s climax came in the early afternoon, when hundreds of Buddhists--all wearing white--lined up to offer new saffron-colored robes to the monks.

“People look forward to this day because it’s a big ceremony,” said Sandy Ruengsorn, 57, who traveled from Alhambra to attend. At the end of the day, “we’ll feel happy, like we’ve done a good deed,” she said.

The kathina marks the emergence of the monks from a traditional three-month, rainy-season retreat to their monasteries, said David Chitchakkol, who helped organize Sunday’s event.

The ceremony, imbued with a spirit of giving, started at 9 a.m. with people lining up in the community center’s parking lot to offer homemade food to the monks. That gesture, Chitchakkol said, stems from an ancient Buddhist tenet that precludes monks from working in the fields to produce their own food.

As is true of holidays in many religions, the kathina also centers on a theme of world peace and harmony, said Dattajeevo Bhikkhu, a Buddhist abbot who traveled from Thailand to preside over the ceremony.

“The essence of today is to bring the teaching of peace to the world,” Bhikkhu said in an interview, minutes before he delivered a half-hour sermon to hundreds of people kneeling on mats spread across the floor of the community center.

Asked why the kathina is such an important holiday, he chuckled and replied matter-of-factly, “This is the only day the monk will get a new set of clothing.”

Bhikkhu was among nine monks participating in the ceremony, all of whom wore robes and sandals, and had cleanly shaven heads. Most of the people in attendance Sunday were Thai, but there were also Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian Buddhists.

The kathina is observed by all Buddhists, though different temples observe the holiday at different times during the month after monks emerge from their retreat.

Sunday’s event was organized by the members of a predominantly Thai Buddhist temple in Maywood. That temple is not large enough to accommodate the hundreds who turn out for the ceremony, Chitchakkol said, so in recent years they have held the event at the Garden Grove Community Center.

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The ceremony is not intended to be either joyous or solemn, Bhikkhu said. But many of those in attendance said they consider the event a happy occasion, a time for spiritual renewal as well as a chance to catch up with old friends.

“We come here to purify our mind and soul,” said Rae Ruangtragool, 42, who operates a Thai restaurant in Costa Mesa. “We’re thinking about helping people. We want to bring the world happiness by meditation.”

After Bhikkhu delivered his sermon, the lights in the community center were dimmed, as people meditated in silence for nearly an hour. The monks, lined up across a stage, sat motionless with their legs crossed and their hands lying, palms up, in their laps.

The kathina was scheduled to end about 4 p.m., with Bhikkhu offering a final blessing: “May Lord Buddha be with you.”