Sacred Minnesota | Refugees Find Peace in Buddhist Temple | Season 2

(gun shots) - [Sabrina] Cambodian culture was dying back in the Khmer Rouge times.

- [Chanda] To escape a genocide from Cambodia, where they killed millions of people, most of the refugees started to come in in 1982 without speaking any English.

We come from a country of zero, and then to build the largest Cambodian temple, it would not happen if we didn't have that resiliency and, the generation prior to me, to see there's a strong need for a place for them to come together.

When we inaugurated this on 7-7-2007, a lot of elder people, and even my grandma, she said that "I'd never seen a temple inaugurated in my lifetime," because her lifetime was always hardship.

"This is so beautiful, you know, to see a temple inaugurated and to see all the Sima Boundaries."

And so it's a place of belonging for them.

I'm proud of the community here in the state of Minnesota.

- Minnesota is one of the best states, honestly, [to] be a Cambodian here since it is one of the states that has the most population of Cambodians.

Having the temple here for us, I think every Cambodian in Minnesota feels proud.

- They support us to build a beautiful building, beautiful temple, beautiful culture, and beautiful community in Minnesota.

(Cambodian music) - Watt Munisotaram, as you know, it is the biggest Buddhist temple in the North America.

- I think our community is truly honored to have the largest Cambodian Buddhist temple in our neighborhood.

It's amazing to see the work that has been done here.

- [Sithoeun] We chose this place right here, because it is central from Rochester, St. Paul, Eagan.

- [Chanda] We come together and work together, and that's how we able to deliver this magnificent temple.

- (speaking Khmer) - (speaking Khmer) - [Chanda] We're sitting on a 42-acre lot.

- [John] It never ceases to amaze me, the grounds here.

I think a lot of people maybe don't even know all the beautiful things that are here.

- (speaking Khmer) - I'm happy and grateful that there's a place for me, my friends and family to learn about Buddhism and Cambodian culture.

And I really like the paintings and statues and just to learn about, like, Cambodian culture and Buddhism and all that stuff.

- [Sabrina] Seeing it build over time, it's something me and, like, the whole Cambodian community in Minnesota are really proud of.

- (speaking Khmer) - It's called Munisotaram.

Translate into "the place that will bring happiness to the people who come and listen to the Buddhist monk who give us some advice."

- We study the Buddhist teaching, and we share our teaching and our experience to the other people.

- We learn, we practice, and we do the right way for what Buddhism to be about.

- [Sithoeun] The celebration or the occasion that we do pay tribute to our ancestor who already departed their life.

The people for two weeks start to bring the food to support an offering to the monk.

- Everybody bring the food here and then come here and be prepared to the small bowl and put in a tray and prepare as a nice and clean and make sure everything good.

And then we offer to the monk.

- [Sithoeun] During this time, we believe that those ancestors will come and release to receive our merit.

- It just sharing what we have, like a loving kindness, compassion.

Anybody can come, can visit, and can share the food.

- [Sithoeun] We want to show to the world that we have the precious culture that we want to carry on and leave it on to the next generation to come.

- We know that we're keeping the culture alive from generation to generation.

- [Chanda] We have such traumatic memories of the genocide and able to find peace here on the ground of Hampton, Minnesota.

There's no words to describe that.

That's the sacred, for me.

(Cambodians singing)

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