Wat
Wat Khmer Canada
Wat Khmer Canada, known in French as the Pagode khmère du Canada, is a Khmer Buddhist temple on rue de Nancy in Montréal, Quebec.[1][2] Cambodians in the city usually call it the pagode de Nancy.[2]
History
The Venerable Hok Savann arrived in Montréal in 1981. In his first year there he was elected president of the Société bouddhiste khmère (Khmer Buddhist Society), which lay Cambodians in the city had founded that year.[2][1] He led the planning of the pagoda and became its abbot. It opened in 1982, and the City of Montréal counts it as the first Cambodian Buddhist pagoda on the island of Montréal.[1][2] Donations from Cambodians in Montréal and from Cambodian communities in Canada, the United States, France and Australia paid for the whole project.[1]
The pagoda began in a small residential building on rue de Nancy, which held the worship space and the abbot's apartment. It covered less than a third of today's site. Fire destroyed that building; the city dates the fire to 1985.[1][2] Around 1985 the society bought the next lot, with two houses and a commercial building. The commercial building was heavily renovated in the 1980s and became the great hall for worshippers. A third lot was bought around 1990, and its house was torn down to make a parking lot.[2] By then the society was already thinking about a larger pagoda, because the site ran short of room and parking at the great festivals.[2] In 2006 the Venerable Hok Savann planned a new pagoda closer to traditional Cambodian architecture, with far more space.[2]
Architecture
Three linked buildings make up the pagoda. Two of them house the monks and the yiey ji, lay women known as the grandmothers of the pagoda, who assist at ceremonies and keep five, eight or ten Buddhist precepts.[1][2] The third building is the great hall. Its main entrance, at the side behind the residences, has a tiered roof covered in gold-yellow imitation tiles and a sign reading Pagode khmère du Canada in French and in Khmer.[2] Images of Angkor Wat decorate the pagoda.[1]
Between the two entrances to the front parking lot stands an outdoor altar with a Buddha image, where worshippers offer incense. A second Buddha altar sits under a glass cube at the far end of the rear parking lot.[2] Inside, a raised platform a little over 1 meter (3.3 feet) high, 6 meters (20 feet) wide and 12 meters (39 feet) long is set apart for the monks. The sima, sacred stones that mark the bounds of ritual space, lie beneath it. The monks use it to recite the monastic precepts and for rituals shared with lay people.[2]
Religious life
Every seven or eight days, worshippers gather for a holy day ceremony from 8 to 11 a.m., followed by a shared meal. Men and women traditionally eat apart at this meal, grouped by the number of precepts they keep.[1] During ceremonies only the Venerable Hok Savann sits in the large stupa-style seat to the left of the altar.[1]
The pagoda follows the Cambodian festival calendar. Cambodian New Year falls between April 13 and 16, and the New Year, Pchum Ben and Kathin, the festival of offerings, draw the largest crowds.[1][2] Kathin is the one festival with an outdoor procession.[2] After the religious ceremonies, the pagoda hosts Cambodian folk dances, traditional Khmer games and karaoke contests.[1]