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Blog #9: A Buddhist Temple in São Paulo

By allilopez

When people think about Brazil, the last thing that comes to mind is a person of Asian descent. What most people do not know is that Brazil (and São Paulo in particular), is home to 1.5 million people of Japanese descent. This means that Brazil is home to the largest Japanese population outside of Japan. In addition, there are 500,000 more people of non-Japanese East Asian ancestry (i.e. Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc.).

This has meant that after 100 years of immigration, Brazil has absorbed many aspects of East Asian culture. Granted although these 2 million people of East Asian descent only make up 1% of Brazil’s total population, they are nonetheless an important and influential component of it.

This influence and vibrant presence is visible through a different number of ways, most prominently through the Templo Zu Lai, a Buddhist temple located in the city of Cotia, just outside of São Paulo. With a size of 10,000 m2 it became the largest Buddhist Temple in Latin America upon its inauguration on October 5, 2003.

The Templo Zu Lai (which roughly translates to “him who came”) follows a branch of Mahayana Buddhism practiced at the Fo Guang Shan temple in Taiwan. Its main objectives are to maintain Buddhist traditions while making them accessible to everyone. Its attendees and followers practice the teachings of Humanistic Buddhism with the main goal of spreading the teachings of the Fo Guang Shan monastery and spreading the teachings of Buddhism through education, culture, philanthropy and spiritual purification.

I have to admit that I did not expect it to be so large as the handful of Buddhist temples I had seen in São Paulo were rather small. As soon as I saw it, I was taken aback by its beauty and the aura of serenity it seemed to exude. I genuinely felt as if I were in a Buddhist temple somewhere in East Asia. It seemed all the more authentic because the monks were actually speaking Chinese rather than Portuguese. All in all, I really loved the experienced because it showed me a very different, but very beautiful side of Brazil and of São Paulo.

Até mais gente! (Until next time everyone!)