Buddhist Nuns Feeling at Home in O.C.

The people who live at Duoc Su Temple look like ordinary Buddhist monks, with their shaved heads and their simple, loose gray garb and saffron-colored robes.

But look closer at the master chanting with the worshipers who are sitting on the floor of the cool, rug-lined interior of the praying room.

The master is a woman.

So are the rest of the temple keepers.

“We’ve surprised many people because, I guess, when they see a temple, they think of monks,” said 46-year-old Dung Thi Truong, who with her master, the Venerable Loan Kim Le, established Duoc Su Temple, Southern California’s first all-female Vietnamese Buddhist temple, in 1982.

The temple, now on Magnolia Street, had its first incarnation in a rented two-bedroom house a couple of miles away on Hope Street, where it drew the ire of neighbors who complained about the noise and traffic that worshipers brought. The new temple--a high-ceiling, white-and-green pagoda with a five-bedroom house in the back serving as living quarters for the 10 nuns there--has been rebuilt to meet city zoning codes.

The temple’s grand opening is scheduled May 3 and 4, and about 30 Buddhist dignitaries from all parts of the world, along with city officials and local monks, are expected to attend. The event is open to the public.

Younger Vietnamese Americans and neighbors are still surprised upon learning that only nuns live at Duoc Su. But in Vietnam, and in some other parts of Asia, Buddhist monks and nuns live and worship in separate temples.

As they emigrated to the West in the early 1980s when the Vietnamese government cracked down on religion, more and more Buddhist nuns and monks worshiped together at temples, all of them run by monks and their male followers. In these holy places, nuns mostly keep to themselves and have no major responsibilities.

It was the intention of Le, when she emigrated to the U.S. in 1982, to reintroduce to the Vietnamese community here the custom of women worshiping on their own grounds. Le, like all Vietnamese Buddhist monks and nuns, is known in the community by an honorific title bestowed to signify her spiritual identity. Hers is Thich Nu Nhu Hoa.

“I wanted to establish an all-Buddhist-nuns temple,” she said, “so that there is a place for those who want to enter the monastery and carry out the religion with the support, care and teaching of other women.”

Duoc Su was believed to be the first all-female Vietnamese Buddhist temple in the state, although no one is certain. Now there are others, in San Jose, Sacramento and San Diego.

At Duoc Su, Le and her acolytes have power that nuns do not have at monk-run temples. Le and Truong oversee the day-to-day operation. The other eight nuns--the youngest is 14 and the oldest are in their 70s--help guide the faithful in prayers, meditations, confessions and ceremonies, which include weddings and funerals.

When Le and Truong moved to Garden Grove in 1982, they did not join any of the existing Vietnamese temples because both had been schooled at and had worshiped in an all-female pagoda in Vietnam, also named Duoc Su Temple.

“The rules of living in a temple for monks and nuns are different,” explained 54-year-old Le, a smiling, soft-spoken woman who often covers her shaved head with a hand-knitted cap. “The differences are so many and distinct that it’s not as comfortable for women to practice the religion under one roof with the men.”

“It’s better that we follow our own set,” she added, “but with each other so that the acknowledged and accepted differences are not glaring.”

Monks and nuns worship the same way. All take vows of celibacy and live ascetic lives, forsaking all material goods. Further, they have to shave their heads, give up meat, live in a temple and obey the hundreds of rules of the dharma, the Buddhist’s guide to living.

What sets nuns apart is that they must accept that they are inferior to monks, even if the monk is but a boy who has just entered the monastery.

In this regard, the nuns at Duoc Su are no different from Buddhist nuns elsewhere.

But not all Buddhists worldwide accept the order of nuns.

According to Ananda Guruge, who teaches Buddhism at Cal State Fullerton, the order is not accepted by religious leaders in countries in the Southern school of Buddhism, in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Bangladesh and India, the birthplace of the religion.

At one point, Guruge said, not enough women joined the order, and it was disbanded.

Today, the order flourishes in countries belonging to the Northern school of Buddhism, he added, which are represented by China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam, and those groups have temples in the U.S.

To be accepted into the sangha, or community of monks, nuns must follow the eight rules the Buddha decreed more than 2,500 years ago when he allowed the first woman--his aunt and stepmother Prajapati Gotami--to launch the order of nuns.

Those rules, Guruge said, are necessary for the modesty and protection of women, and declare that nuns are junior to monks and that many of their rituals must be performed under the advice of monks.

There are other guidelines that govern the behavior of nuns, including those telling them how to eat, sit or walk while in the presence of monks.

Even at an all-female temple like Duoc Su, the rules apply.

“To become a Buddhist nun, we have to be willing to accept the rules,” said Le. “If we want to follow the Buddha and find enlightenment, then we cannot disagree or pick and choose what we will obey.”

Truong, whose religious name is Thich Nu Nhu Thong, earned her bachelor’s degree in sociology at Cal State Fullerton in 1990. The high-spirited nun with the infectious smile acknowledged that her Western education challenges the seeming sexism of her religion.

“Based upon what we know here, it is a little bit unfair, especially since we nuns do the same things as monks,” she said, but added that feminism holds no sway over Buddhist nuns.

“In the teaching of the Buddha,” Truong said, “the rules are clear.”

They are rules that 21-year-old Linh My Tu, known as Thich Nu Hue Nguyet, accepted when she had her head shaved and took her vow of chastity and obedience when she entered the nunnery four years ago.

“Everything in life is going to disintegrate eventually,” said Tu, who had been going to the temple with her mother since she was 7. “I became a nun because I asked myself, ‘Why just live my life to be selfish like everyone else?’

“I want to help others and help them understand that there is a better life for everyone.”

At the age of 9, Tu said, she knew she wanted to become a nun. Her father was against the idea, but allowed her to stay at the temple during the summer and on weekends.

At Duoc Su, Tu considers the nuns her sisters, friends and advisors.

“I am comfortable here because it’s a peaceful place,” she said. “And yes, I like the fact that we women can worship at a place we can call our own.”