Organization
Branch of the International Community of Khmer Buddhist Monks
The Branch of the International Community of Khmer Buddhist Monks is a Khmer Buddhist temple and monks' center in Oakland, California.[1] Its Khmer name is សាខាមជ្ឈមណ្ឌលសហគមន៍ព្រះសង្ឃខ្មែរអន្ដរជាតិ.[2] It was founded by the Supreme Patriarch of Cambodian Buddhism, Preah Maha Ghosananda, and is also known as the King Monks Maha Ghosananda Temple.[1][3] As of 2026, four monks lived at the branch.[2]
Religious life
The temple is a center for prayer, healing and the promotion of peace. Its monks lead ritual ceremonies, meditation and chanting, and they perform blessings for house warmings, weddings, the honoring of ancestors and funerals.[1] The temple is still being developed.[1]
At Khmer New Year, followers gather at the temple to pay respect to the Triple Gem, receive the five precepts, chant the great Paritta and offer food to the monks' alms bowls, and the monks give blessings and sermons. The three days are Moha Sangkran, Vireak Vanabat and Tngai Loeng Sak. On the third day, families and friends wash the Buddha images, the monks and their elders with perfumed water. People also build sand hills on the temple grounds, decorate the main mound, and play Khmer music and games.[1] In 2019 the celebration ran from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on April 14 and 15, and in 2018 the temple held Pchum Ben (ភ្ជុំបិណ្ឌ, Pchum Ben) on October 6 and 7.[1] Monks from the temple have also opened the Cambodian New Year festival in San Francisco with a New Year blessing, together with monks from the Nagara Dhamma Temple of San Francisco.[3]
Praying hall
The branch is raising money to build a praying hall (Preah Vihear) in Oakland. The hall is meant to honor the work of Maha Ghosananda and to promote peace, giving elders and children who survived the Khmer Rouge regime a place to pray, heal and find comfort. It is also planned as a site for New Year ceremonies, language classes and a senior center.[1]
Its design copies the architecture of Prasat Banteay Srei, a tenth-century Cambodian temple, with carving in the style of the Angkor period. A Cambodian architect from Los Angeles and a master contractor from the Royal University of Fine Art of Cambodia are designing and building it to meet U.S. building codes.[1] Earlier fundraising brought in $200,000, which paid for two lots for a monastery and a parking lot. The branch puts the remaining cost of the hall at $1,163,000.[1]