First Tendai Buddhist Center Opens in U.S.

June 11, 2004

Source: The Independent

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11934382&BRD=248&PAG=461&dept_id=462341&rfi=6

On June 11, 2004 The Independent reported, "A group of priests and monks came all the way from Japan for a groundbreaking, or more properly, ground blessing ceremony at Karuna Tendai Dharma Center [in New York]. The project at the Tendai school's first center in North America is regarded as particularly auspicious, one of the visiting Japanese dignitaries explained, because it comes on the 1200th anniversary of the introduction of the pure form of Tendai Buddhism from China into Japan. The Tendai school is associated with the Mahayana, or Northern Buddhist tradition. While final approvals are yet to be granted by the Canaan Zoning Board of Appeals and the state Department of Transportation, the Buddhist center looks forward to moving a barn built in 1780 farther back on its 32-acre property."