Berkeley Thai Temple SAVED!!!

This past couple months has been a struggle for my family and our Thai community. Our Thai temple in Berkeley, Wat Mongkolratanaram has been a part of the Berkeley community for 25 years. For the past 25 years, our Thai temple has been bringing together Thai Americans together every Sunday to enjoy food and some festivities. My parents, aunts, uncles, and grandmother have been attending this Thai temple since they came to the United States. With them, they brought my brother, my cousins and me every Sunday to surround us with the Thai culture and religion. They passed their culture to us and we mixed it in with our "American" culture. We enjoyed all the fine foods while praying and communicating with other kids whose parents also brought them for the same reason. Every Sunday, the Thai temple opens it doors to anyone to come and enjoy the fine foods and learn about the Thai culture. This is the main source of income for the temple to keep its doors open.

Last year, the temple celebrated its 25th year anniversary, but instead of proper festivities, it was slapped with notice to cease all festivities and cooking on Sundays! Surrounding neighbors have been complaining about the noise level, limited parking and the large amounts of people that come.
Surrounding neighbors want the Thai Temple to significantly reduce the offerings of fine foods and festivities on Sunday. Instead of every Sunday, neighbors want the Thai Temple to only operate on 3 Sundays out of the year!
Since late last year, the Thai Community has gotten even closer to saving the Thai Temple. It has even made it to the media as a very controversial topic. Since these festivities and fine foods on Sunday is the Temple’s main source of income, shutting everything down with ultimate close the Thai Temple.

To keep this post short as of February 18, 2009, I am very happy to say that the Zoning Adjustment Board in Berkeley has voted to allow the Thai Temple to continue its operations!
This is one of the main reasons living in the bay area is great! There are about 60,000 Thai people living in the bay area and while not all of them go to the Berkeley Thai Temple, almost everyone has come together to support it. At the recent hearing at the Berkeley City Hall, more thank 1,000 Thai, Thai-American, and American people showed their support. Many people traveled from as far as San Jose to support our Thai Temple.

This Thai Temple has been apart of my life, I have met so many other Thai American kids that were my age every Sunday when I was little. Because of this, I have learned extensively about my religion and about my culture. I have been apart of this Thai Temple since I can remember. I remember playing with many kids, working with many older grandma’s, and just spending quality with my brother and 7 other cousins who we saw every weekend.
If you don’t know about this Thai Temple, it is considered to have the BEST THAI FOOD IN THE BAY AREA!! All proceed s go to the upkeep of the Temple. It’s a great place to learn about Thai culture and to meet a lot of very nice energetic people. With more than 280 reviews on the yelp and an overall rating of 4 stars, I encourage you to try it out on Sunday, It is well worth the trip!
http://www.savethethaitemple.com