Wat Dharmararam Cambodian Buddhist Temple in Stockton CA

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Cover collage created by LG @jayasimha78 using photos captured at Cambodian Buddhist temple.

I recently had opportunity to visit Wat Dharmararam Cambodian Buddhist Temple in Stockton CA, Stockton is located in central valley of California around hour and half hours drive from San Francisco.

Even though I have visited Stockton several times, I recently came to know about this temple through Visit Stockton campaign advertisement. In fact this temple was established in 1984, it serves as a spiritual and cultural center for the Cambodian community in the region. The temple is dedicated to preserving and promoting the teachings of Theravada Buddhism and Cambodian culture.

Here is a shot of community hall with Buddha and other statues at the entrance.

The temple complex is situated on a spacious piece of land and features traditional Cambodian architectural elements. It includes a main prayer hall, a meditation hall, living quarters for the resident monks, a community hall, and various other facilities including restrooms for visitors.

Here is shot of prayer hall with larger than life statues at the entrance.

Here are couple of interesting statues, also public restrooms are located back of this statue.

Hmmm, looks like these folks are trying to kill each other. This Buddhist temple features over 90 colorful and larger than life statues that celebrate the life and story of the Cambodian Buddha.

As per the information found in the brochure here is the description of this statue, “At first, many distracting images appeared in his mind, but finally, Buddha’s mind became very calm, like a pond of still water. He saw “good” leads the way from suffering to peace. He was now the Supreme Enlightened One.”

Here is a statue of 50 feet long lying down buddha!

Here is a statue of Buddha under a Bodhi tree.

Here is a very colorful statues.

This statue depicts, “Buddha taught his first Dharmma to his five Ascetic friends, Kondanna, Bhaddiya, Vappa, Mahanama, and Assaji.”

Here is the details of this statue as per the brochure found in the temple, “One morning, a girl named Sujata offered Siddhartha some delicious milk-rice porridge and said to him, “May you be successful in obtaining your wishes.” Here, he eats and becomes healthy again so that he can continue his
studying”

Here is a series of Buddha statues, probably depicting transformation I guess!

A close up of one of the Buddha statue.

Here is a shot of Four Faced Goddess (Faces represent Mercy, Happiness, Kindness, and Peace).

Here is an interesting story about this statue as stated in the temple brochure, "Buddha was on his daily alms-rounds at Rajagaha when his cousin, Devadatta, set loose a wild elephant to kill Buddha and his monks. Devadatta was jealous of Buddha because of his fame and following. Buddha thought about reminding the elephant of past lives and communicated this thought to the elephant. The elephant recognizes his old "“friend” and bows down to Buddha

Here is a row of statues various goddesses located in the temple premise.

Here is another shot of row of goddesses statues.

Here is an interesting fountain found in front of the temple.

Close up shot of statues located in front of community hall.

Here is the description of this statue as stated in temple brochure, “The chariot represents when Siddhartha left the kingdom to see the poor people outside the castle. He was 28 years old. Seeing the poor people made him very sad and he started to question his privileged life. He began to
meditate and understand life. He took several short visits to the nearby towns. These experiences caused him to want to leave his current life as a royal to study with the Braham mystics”

I was informed annual Cambodia new year celebrations are held in this temple. Overall it was a great experience visiting this temple. One of the unique places in the USA to see larger than life statues and enjoy Cambodian Buddhist culture.

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@jayasimha78 Thanks for the post.

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I have friends who live in Stockton @jayasimha78 I’ll link them this post, perhaps they’ve not visited this colourful place. Thanks for sharing.

Paul

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@SanjayBDLG Thank You!

@PaulPavlinovich Please do, very interesting place to visit. Probably not well known among locals of Stockton. My sister-in-law lives there from last 20 years, she came to know about this recently.

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The statues and idols are colorful and the photos are impressive, though the craftsmanship looks amateurish.

I visited several temples during my various business visits to the US @jayasimha78 but the common impression among local Americans was that it was meant for the free food ‘Prasadam’ that we get there which is an ill-informed and amateurish comment.

What are your experiences in this regard?

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@TusharSuradkar Thank You! This particular temple there was no prasadam. I presume you are talking about hindu temples and gurudwars, where they serve food. I don’t have specific opinion on that because my frequency of visits are very low.

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That’s an incredible story…! It’s amazing how even thousands of years later, Buddha’s message of peace and respect still holds true. The temple is a great resource for the local Cambodian community. It is amazing to see the important events of Buddha’s life in the form of statutes. It’s wonderful that such a historical monument exists in the Central Valley. In India, we call it Dhamma which is in the Pali language. Buddha’s era language was in Pali. Whereas Dharma is a Sanskrit word. Thank you for sharing @jayasimha78 .

I would like to tag our Cambodian friend @Sophia_Cambodia to have a look.

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@Rohan10 Thank You!

Thank you for tagging me here @Rohan10 glad to know there are such places in the town where @jayasimha78 visited. Well, there are many Cambodian-Buddhish temples in many states in the States, but making these statues costs quite a lot too, so you won’t see them at every temple in the states.

About the statues themselves, that’s incredible but from my experience, these statues are not at its beauty standard (depends on artists who made them) but they are more beautiful with the hand of the skilled sculptors. However, what more important is whether people get the message and learn anything from these statues. We have Dhamma teaching which helped us to understand Buddha’s teachings more. We have Cambodian monks who talk in Youtube that can help us to understand the teaching. I am grateful!

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