It’s been a while since I’ve posted on this blog, as I’ve been re-evaluating what is truly important – there is a good blog post here ( http://blog.drbu.edu/index.html%3Fp=1310.html )that notes that the actual temple buildings and physical decorations are far less important than the people’s cultivations. This I acknowledge, but it’s difficult to describe daily practices and human interactions, so this blog will still focus on photos of the “superficial” support structures, that is, the temples and statues and meditation halls, even while understanding that these “Dharma-candies” are just that, to help nourish the real progress and practice from reflecting in one’s heart/mind.
Anyway, this post will focus on St Louis! A summer 2021 trip to STL included a tour of nearly every Asian Buddhist monastery and temple in the greater St Louis area in Missouri. However, due to the pandemic, most of the Chinese ones were closed, including the largest in the Midwest region, the Mid America Buddhist Association (MABA), as well as the Fo Guang Shan St Louis temple and the Dharma Drum chapter Pure Mind Center. Enjoy the tour!
St. Louis has a loose association of the various Buddhist groups, the Buddhist Council of Greater St Louis, which can be found here:
http://www.buddhistcouncilstl.org/
Centers that I Wasn’t Able to Visit:
The Korean “temple” (aka house) that was Buddhanara Temple St Louis is no longer, as the nun has permanently moved to the Buddhanara Temple in Atlanta and no new monks or nuns have come to replace her. (For Atlanta, visit www.atlantabuddhism.org)
Mid-American Buddhist Association (MABA)
299 Heger Lane, Augusta MO 63332
The Mid-American Buddhist Association is perhaps the largest Buddhist center in the region, practicing in the Chinese Mahayana tradition, with residential monks and nuns and a rural meditation retreat center, in the Midwest, and located less than hour away from St Louis in Augusta Missouri.
Fo Guang Shan St Louis Temple
3109 Smiley Rd, Bridgeton, MO 63044
www.fgsstlbc.org
A branch of Fo Guang Shan (Buddha’s Light Monastery in Taiwan), this beautiful center home to nuns is located in an old church.
Centers I visited, in no particular order:
First, we explore the largest cluster of temples on the South side of town, just west of the Mississippi and south of downtown, and then head on over to the northwest side closer to the airport where there’s a few temples as well, and finish in the Chinatown strip mall area on Olive Boulevard.
Cherokee Buddhist Temple (Wat Buddhamanee Rattanaram)
2830-32 Cherokee Street, Saint Louis MO 63118
This is a Thai and Lao temple in an older brick building on a cute little block of a few small businesses. Fairly standard Theravada place.
Tu Vien Quang Phap (The Universal Buddhist Congregation Quang Phap Religious Monastic Institute)
4609 S Grand Blvd, St louis MO 63111
This is a very interesting building – around 66,000 square foot multi-level on a huge 3 acre lot with an oversized parking lot, this “temple” building started life around 1911 or 1918 as the Scruggs Elementary School. St Louis county closed the public school by 2010 and decided to sell the property, as well as several other surplus schools, to raise money. Originally listed for $1.25 million at auction, it finally sold in 2012 for $700,000 to this Vietnamese Buddhist group. I’m not sure what happened between 2012 and 2021, but as of 2021, the building appears to be partially abandoned and boarded up, and a Vietnamese nun from another temple noted she thinks that group didn’t have the manpower or financial resources to run a monastery in such a large location hence why it is mostly unused now.
Blue Lotus Dharma Center
3463 Itaska St, #1f, St Louis Mo 63111
This place, the ground floor of an apartment/condo building, was closed, but probably would have been closed to random visits even without a pandemic as from the website, as a nonresidential center, it’s likely only open during meeting hours. It appears to be an American group following loosely in some Tibetan tradition. But here’s a photo of the outside anyway!
Chua Van Thu (Van Thu Buddhist Temple)
3627 Bates St, St Louis MO 63116
This Vietnamese temple was closed to the public due to the pandemic.
Chua Phat Tu (Compassionate Buddha Temple)
911 Lemay Ferry Rd, St Louis MO 63125
(Formerly at 3560 Bamberger)
Home to a Vietnamese nun, this group is loosely affiliated with the Ten Thousand Buddhas Summit Monastery in Indiana (Tu Vien Van Phat Danh, or Buddha Blessed Temple).
Dao Trang Vo Luong Quang Buddhist Temple
4760 Heege Rd, St Louis MO 63123
This is probably the largest Vietnamese temple, with a very beautiful and serene gardens full of various Buddha statues (the usual ones including Guan Yin Bodhisattva (Quan Am), Shakyamuni Buddha, the baby Buddha’s birth and seven steps, the first turning of the Dharma with the Enlightened Buddha teaching 5 disciples at Deer Park, the passing of Buddha into nirvana (laying on his side), and so forth.
Click/swipe through the slideshow!
Wat Buddha Samagkeedham (Lao Buddhist Temple)
3625 S. Kingshighway Blvd, St Louis MO 63109
Wedged in a brick building between a Dollar Tree and an auto parts store, this temple serves the Laotian community (a few Hmong people and others show up here too, the friendly Lao monk noted.)
Missouri Buddhist Meditation Center (Sri Lankan Temple)
7102 N Hanley Rd, Hazelwood, MO 63042
This small house is home to some Sri Lankan monks who are eager to teach meditation in English to all as well as conduct services in Sinhalese to the local Sri Lankan community.
Wat Prasriratanaram (Thai Buddhist Temple and Meditation Center)
890 Lindsay Lane, Florissant MO 63031
This Thai temple was founded in the 1980s by a Thai doctor and home to traditional Thai Buddhist monks from the main lineage in Thailand. The main building is a former church, as can be seen in the pews – a rarity among Buddhist temples! They also have monthly Thai food fairs for authentic cuisine.
Linh Son Buddhist Association of Missouri
10949 N Warson Rd, St Louis MO 63114
A small house with a Vietnamese monk.
Taiwan Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation St Louis Chapter
8515 Olive Boulevard, St. Louis, MO
With an address not to be confused with Olive St, this small center serves as the St Louis chapter of Tzu Chi, perhaps the world’s largest Buddhist charity with multiple branches across the US and dozens of countries. It is next to the St Louis Chinese Journal newspaper.
Pure Mind Center (Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist Association St Louis Chapter)
7825 Olive Blvd, University City, MO 63130
Down the street from Tzu Chi, and along the Asian area of St Louis’s “Chinatown”, this branch of Dharma Drum (DDMBA), a Chan/Zen Buddhist school headquartered in Taiwan, regularly hosts meditation classes and retreats in English as well as in Chinese, including online.
Hope you enjoyed this tour of St Louis’s Asian-American temples and monasteries, religious organizations and Buddhist churches!
The Rabbit's Horn 