Our History (under construction)

Our Vien Giac Buddhist Temple was founded in 1981 by Phat Tu of Oklahoma City and Sub-urban Area looking for a place to practice their Buddhism. It took several years to erect the first building for the temple.

With each challenge we have encountered, we became stronger in our Buddhism. We may provide links to other sites that provide more detail on our temple history or particular events in our past.

We invite you to become a part of the Vien Giac Buddhist Temple today and a piece of its history tomorrow.

Due to the facility's need to accomodate the increasing number of Buddhist Vietnamese in Oklahoma City, a Buddhist monk named Thích Giác Son and several other Buddhists began to look for a new facility in August, 1981. After they received unconditional resale from a Vietnamese Buddhist, Mr. La Long Phát, in October 4, 1981, they began to remodel a burned-down house into a main hall chamber and named it as a Viên Giác Temple. The address is 3324 North Ruth, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

February 22, 1982, Thay Thích Giác Son left the Temple to continue his Buddhist activities in another place. A Board of Directors was temporarily organized to manage the unfinished projects.

February 25, 1982, the City issued a permit for the Temple's activities, and the post office, at the same time, granted a permit for reducing the mailing cost.

May 2, 1982, the main hall was completed and the An Vi Phat ceremony was organized under the demonstration of the Venerables Thích Pháp Nhan and Vjeckananda (a Thái Buddhist monk), and since then the Temple has been open for service to all local Buddhists on Sundays.

August 21, 1982, a main Buddhist occasion (Vu Lan - Veska) and a Praying ceremony were first held at the Temple by the demonstrations of Venerable Thích Mãn Giác, President of The Buddhist Congregation in The United States, and three other Buddhist monks: Thích Minh ñåo, Thích Minh Châu and Thích Then Hue.

September 18, 1982, due to a request from the Board of Directors, Venerable Thích TÎnh TØ accepted the position, a spirtual leader until the arrival of Venerable Thích Trí Hoà. Venerable Thích TÎnh TØ stayed at this Temple for three months.

March 13, 1983, Venerable Thích Trí Hoà arrived from West Germany; under the direction of Venerable Thich Man Giac a ceremony to honor him as a resident monk of the Temple was solemnly held on May 8, 1983.

The number of members increased weekly; therefore, during the celebration of Buddha's birthday held on May of 1983 (2530 of Buddhist calendar), a CÃp Cô ñc II fund raising program was established to build a bigger Service hall and facilities at a new location. It was bought for $50,000.00 for 7.5 acres. (LÍ ñng ñÃt 3/6/90). A ground-breaking ceremony was held on September 16, 1990, under the direction of Venerable Thích Mãn Giác. And the constructions of these facilities began on January 4, 1991 and finished on June 31, 1992 by two companies HTB and Pendulum. The cost for these constructions was $400,000.00. The new facilities were opened for all Buddhists on July 1992.
Beside the adult activities, a Buddhist Youth Group has been formed since the Veska day of 1988 to reorganized the Buddhist Youth. The Buddhist Youth Group's facilities has also been built in total of 4.400 square feet.

In the Spring od 1998, The temple purchased an addtion of 2.3 arces and in the Spring of 1999, it purchased another 5.2 arces to make total of 15 acres of real estate to reserve for parking area in the big event.

Viên Giác Temple located on 5101 Northeast 36th, about 5 miles to Northeast from downtown. Since the opening, many well known Buddhist monks in The United State and other countries had come to the Temple to teach Buddhism. Viên Giác Temple is also a very convenient place where many training camps and conferences of the Vietnamese Buddhist Youth Association at central region were held.

Viên Giác Temple is a very special facility of the Vietnamese Buddhist in the United States.