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Lao Buddhist Temple of Colorado
Fire destroyed this Buddhist temple in Westminster, Colo.
WESTMINSTER, Colo. -- A major fire Monday morning in the Denver suburb of Westminster injured a monk and destroyed a Buddhist temple for Laotians.
The blaze at the Lao Buddhist Temple of Colorado was reported sometime before 5 a.m. by the senior monk inside the temple, said Sy Pong, the temple's secretary of English. "He woke up and saw fire burning inside the main temple," Pong told msnbc.com.
The monk, Ounkham Veunnasack, age 76 or 77, was the only person inside the structure at the time, Pong said. He was taken to a hospital for treatment of minor burns and smoke inhalation.
"He's doing OK," Pong said.
The temple, which was recently remodeled, was "a total loss," Pong said.
About five monks are typically assigned to the temple, Pong told The Denver Post.
Westminster Fire Department spokeswoman Diana Allen said the cause of the blaze is under investigation.
Firefighters reported problems getting water as temperatures hovered near zero.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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I am sorry to hear this.
Buddhists don't cause any trouble, are peaceful and leave others alone.
Buddhism is a real "religion of peace".
Yes. That is a shame.
It is a fine religion, soft and reflective.
You should crack a history book. See what those peaceful Japanese Buddists have been up to for the past century. Chinese Buddists .. yeah we could be here all day.
Those aren't Buddhists. Being Japanese or Chinese does not necessitate being Buddhist.
So sad. I hope the monk gets better soon. I wish more people would take the message from that religion, and what Jesus really said, instead of the super non-christian bastardized ways that supposed "Christians" in our country follow, we would be in better shape.
I couldn't agree more with you StephAce. It is highly doubtful that Jesus would even recognize what passes for Christian today. Especially in American, these Mega Churches and multimillion palaces complete with TV Studio's can hardly fit the Request to care for one another and the poor.
StephAce, not all Christians fall into the description of Christians that you give. Most of us do fall into a message of peace, hate war, but also hate what God hates. But we love all people. There are things that I do that you do not like and there are things that you do that I don't like. There is nothing wrong with that. God made us all unique. It's when you hurt somebody else to promote your religion that it gets totally off what Jesus taught. I've never hurt anybody and I would like to think that I've helped various people throughout my life - most Christians never hurt anybody. But because of the few that do hurt somebody else and a few that make the news, we are all lumped into a group of haters. This is wrong and it's wrong of you to say it.
I pray this man recovers quickly from his injuries....
Apart from the difficulty of determining what god hates, why hate when you can live and let live? Maybe god hates that other religion. Let him. You don't have to.
What a horrible thing to happen. My sympathy to all the families that worship there.
This is a hate crime. The Budhist temple is protected just like a Christian church for the First Amendment.
No where does the artical mention a crime, best wait for the facts before spouting off.
As of this morning Boulder fire investigators say they've found no evidence of arson.
Your probably more upset over this than the monks are. As Buddhist we know much of Impermanence........
As with any faith, it is people that taint faith in the name of religion. True not all people, but those are the ones that you hear about, unfortunately. I believe that all faiths are truly about peace. However, religion (to me) is the translation by humans to help other humans BEGIN to understand faith. As a result, it often times becomes a giant and long game of telephone where we have so many different ways of understanding faith emerges. Among those ways are the views of the extremists.
However, I digress to the point I had intended on making. This is a story about a tragic loss and the opportunity for those impacted to show continuance. It is NOT a story about which religion is better or what a specific religion has done to other people. So, I pray and I meditate in hopes that the universe will help provide those impacted by these series of events to have the wisdom and the will to quickly recover (physically, emotionally, and spiritually).
Oh, man...Monk is one of my favorite shows. I hope he's alright. :p
Those monks are worst than children playing with matches. Just recently another temple near where I live burned down from unattended candles and another temper burned in MA just a few months ago from the same thing. A little fire safety would go a long way.
So how about Catholics?
Jerk!
I hope he'll be okay. :( Buddhism is probably one of the few peaceful religions...Sad to hear about their temple burning down too, especially after it was just remodeled. Hope the monk will be okay.