What is the Temple For?
This year’s 75 th Northwest Buddhist Convention theme of " Reflecting on the Past, Looking to Our Future " focuses our attention on the relationship between our history and our future. Since we are also celebrating the 75 th Anniversary of IOBT, we are also thinking about our own temple’s past and future. We might ask ourselves what the purpose of the temple is today as compared to when it was founded 75 years ago. [NOTE: Idaho-Oregon Buddhist temple will be hosting this hybrid convention in Ontario Oregon and online Sept 16-18 (registration and sponsorship information will be posted soon!)] In the past 75 years Idaho-Oregon Buddhist Temple has served many purposes beyond a spiritual one. After World War II and the incarceration of Japanese and Japanese-Americans, the temple served as a place to socialize as the Issei /1 st generation and Nisei /2 nd generation found their way back into American society. It was a pl...