Wat
Wat Chansisamakidham
Wat Chansisamakidham (វត្តចន្ទស៊ីសាមគ្គីធម៌) is a Theravada Buddhist temple on South Hunter Street in downtown Stockton, California.[1][2] Khmer temple directories list it as Wat Chansisamakkithor.[2][3]
History
The temple was founded in 1991 under the direction of Abbot Sombun Athitano, a Theravada monk from rural Thailand. It occupies a block where most residents are Laotian, Hmong and Cambodian refugees. The building is an old Victorian house that the monks worked hard to restore.[1] Published address listings for the temple date from 2011 to 2019.[3]
In 2000 nine monks lived at the temple, and it was a daily gathering place for dozens of local young people, most of them Laotian-American and some of Thai, Hmong or Cambodian descent. The children came to worship and to play, and above all for refuge from the violence of the streets. "We established this temple with the kids in mind," Abbot Sombun said.[1] The abbot had them cook and clean for themselves and one another, older children looked after the younger ones, and those who could drive ran errands for the rest. The temple offered beginning monastic training for boys and a summer school for girls and boys.[1] One of the resident monks, Ajahn Keerati Chatkaew, said the temple's mission was to give young people a safe place to spend time together and to teach them the Buddhist virtues of nonviolence and respect.[1]
In 2026 the directory of Cambodian Buddhist temples in the United States listed one monk at the temple.[2]