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Editor’s note: The American Academy of Religion held its annual conference in San Antonio, Nov. 20-23, bringing more than 3,000 religious scholars to the Alamo city. Although most of the organization’s sessions were not open to the general public, Today’s Catholic staff writer Carol Sowa was able to take part in a Pluralism Project Bus Tour. What follows is her report.
SAN ANTONIO • The tour bus working its way up the Bandera Highway through intermittent drizzle on a recent Saturday morning did not hold the usual San Antonio tourists, bent on exploring the city’s Spanish heritage or taking in scenic Hill Country views.
The occupants were aboard a bus sponsored by Harvard University’s Pluralism Project and bound for special tours of a Buddhist and a Hindu temple — places the average San Antonian may not even be aware exist.
Ground work for the tour was laid last summer by Antonian College Preparatory High School and Harvard alumna, Stephanie Saldaña, whom Today’s Catholic interviewed at that time.
Saldaña was working on a religious diversity profile of San Antonio for the Harvard Divinity School’s Pluralism Project, an undertaking that is attempting to map the changing religious landscape of America.
Dr. Peggy Starkey of the University of the Incarnate Word and the Interreligious Council of San Antonio organized the pre-conference excursion to the two temples located off Bandera Road — the Thai Dhammabucha Buddhist Temple and the Hindu Temple of San Antonio.
The little bus fairly hummed with the animated conversations of its passengers, who hailed from Finland to Japan and assorted points across the United States.
Also onboard was Pluralism Project director, Dr. Diana Eck, professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies at Harvard University and author of A New Religious America: How a “Christian Country” Has Become the World’s Most Religiously Diverse Nation.
“In the last four years,” said Eck, “we made this one of the things that the Pluralism Project can do during the American Academy of Religion.” The first tour took place when the AAR met in Boston a few years ago. “Because the Pluralism Project is Boston-based,” she said, “that year we did a bus tour that looked at the other side of religious Boston.” Included in this excursion were a mosque, a Hindu temple and a Chinese Buddhist center. “It was something people were very grateful to have,” she said, “so the next year we did the same thing in Toronto.” Last year’s conference in Atlanta took in a substantial landmark Hindu Temple in a town better known for its ante-bellum mansions and Civil War history.
San Antonio’s Dhammabucha Temple, located on a wooded lane off Bandera Road not far past Loop 410, offers a tranquil, green oasis hidden away from the surrounding urban hustle and bustle. A passenger’s comment, “It feels like we’re in some little bushland of India,” was soon disproved by the very “American West” wagon wheel décor at the compound’s gate and resident monks in saffron robes whose religious tradition hails from Thailand.
Greeting us was Monk Albert Smith of Thai descent who, along with four other resident bikkhus (monks), currently resides at the park-like property. The monks are of the Dhammayutti sect of the Theravadan Buddhist tradition, the oldest form of Buddhism, which originated in Thailand. Its emphasis is on perfecting one’s life and reaching enlightenment through insight meditation.
Smith noted their group includes two other area monasteries, one at Pipe Creek and one at Marble Falls. All are in rural settings, as they follow the revived “forest tradition” of Ajahn Mun. Whereas in earlier times monks had sought inner perfection meditating in the jungles or forests, modern deforestation in India had nearly made this practice a thing of the past till the “forest monks’” involvement in environmental activism. “The Buddha has said, ‘How praiseworthy are the monks who … retreat into the woods,’ “ related Smith.” So if there’s no woods…” His voice trails off.
No shoes may be worn inside the prayer halls, so these are dutifully slipped off outside the door. Commenting on the gleaming statues of Buddha on a dais at the end of the main prayer hall, Smith points out that the images are there merely to help focus meditation. Buddhism is not a theistic religion and Buddha is not worshipped as a god, but looked to as a guide for life’s journey. “Even if the Buddha’s not there, no matter where we’re at — in the woods or wherever — we concentrate on the Buddha’s image inside of our minds, inside of our hearts,” observed Smith. The Dhammabucha grounds offer scenic nature paths for meditation.
In the main hall, the monks sit in the half lotus position on a raised platform to the right, while meditating. In keeping with their tradition, they depend on members of the Buddhist community to provide their food — one meal a day served around 11 a.m. Usually, the monks offer instruction to the laity before or after this meal.
Smith noted the monks often have more success instructing the young people than their parents do. “The reason why they cause so much trouble for their parents is the karma that they have is between just them and their parents. It’s not between the monks and them,” he said. Many who find their way to the Dhammabucha Temple are not Buddhists, and the monks have no problem with this, nor do they push conversion.
Shoes are slipped back on and the bus boarded for the next destination, the Hindu Temple of San Antonio perched atop a hill a few miles past Helotes — a hill so steep a sign warns “Use Second Gear.” The view is breathtaking, despite the misty day, with the complex’s various buildings dotting the summit. Here the bus riders were received by Dr. Rao and Rani Pemmaraju, who helped found the temple. Shoes were again shed at temple doors, priests and trustees were introduced and a brief history of the temple given.
Dr. Pemmaraju noted that members of this Hindu community originally met for worship in homes, beginning work on the temple in 1984. Of note was their firm commitment that no debt be incurred before they started and, with the work of many volunteers, both from San Antonio and elsewhere, the project was finally completed. The temple’s openness, with several separate structures, was done as a symbolical gesture. It is open daily at certain hours, with the primary community worship service taking place on Sunday, and is used at times by other religions as well. This ecumenical attitude is expressed by Pemmaraju, who observes, “The truth is all one.”
The goal of Hinduism is to attain self-realization — “self” being God or Brahman, described as “the all pervading, immutable and immanent principle.” Like Buddhism, there is belief in reincarnation, living successive lives until perfection is reached. Here karma (or kamma) — intentional acts resulting in states of becoming and rebirth — comes into play.
The many elaborately garbed statues that hold places of honor in the Hindu temple are not, as may first be supposed, multiple gods, but different perceptions or aspects of a single deity. The various images, each with a different name, are actually all representations of the one God. The central figure in the main temple, Lord Vishnu, is honored as the preserver and protector of all life and human forms and is considered one of the most powerful.
One of the smaller shrines displays an icon of Ardhanaareeswara (depicting Lord Shiva as half-man and half-woman), whose presence was at the insistence of Rani Pemmaraju — drawing nods of approval from women on the tour! Dr. Pemmaraju added, “God is one, neither male nor female.” This unique image was a gift from an honored guest from Hawaii, when he learned the local community was anticipating a trip to India to obtain one. The San Antonio temple may be the only one in North America with such a statue.
Framed by ornate silver arches with velvet backdrops, the revered images, their faces dark-hued, are dressed in rich fabrics and bedecked with chrysanthemums and garlands. In a separate shrine are other statues representing sacred human incarnations of the deity and his family, also elegantly dressed, but with marble-white faces.
A picture in one of the shrines embodied the spirit of the day’s tour. It depicted a flower-like image, with a red dot at the center of concentric circles, representing God, and four outwardly expanding corners portraying his infinite nature. Beautiful petals surrounded the outermost circle, each bearing a symbol of one of the world’s religions. “Any path you take is great,” noted Dr. Pemmaraju. “One can reach truth in many ways.”
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