(10 Jun 1996) English/Mute
A group of Americans have spent the past 21 years building a Tibetan Buddhist centre on the California coast.
They claims it's the biggest in the world outside China.
They say they've built the temple in order to ensure that any Tibetan Buddhists threatened by the Communist Chinese will have a safe house where they can maintain their culture.
Since the Chinese seized control of Tibet in 1959, thousands of Buddhist monasteries and libraries have been shut down or destroyed.
It is estimated that over one million people have been killed in the conflict with Chinese communists.
Many now fear Tibetan Buddhism and its civilisation could be wiped out for ever.
So a group of Buddhist followers in California built this temple.
They call it Odiyan: Land of the Enlightened.
They say it is a safe house for a culture and people under threat.
For more than two decades American Buddhist volunteers and inhabitants of Odiyan kept their gates locked to the outside world.
They have been building a home for a faith and a culture they fear will soon be annihilated within Tibet.
Now six large temples and a golden stupa, here on the Californian coast, represent a home from home for Tibetan Buddhism.
SOUNDBITE:
It is terrible what has happened in Tibet. Originally there were about 6,000 monasteries in Tibet, now there are about 13 and even then there are tremendous restrictions. Lama's great enlightened teachers have been killed or put in prison and that is such a loss for all of humanity.
SUPER CAPTION: Jack Petranker, American Buddhist
Thousands of manuscripts and ancient Buddhist teachings have been smuggled out of Tibet.
They have been transcribed into a vast library here at Odiyan.
Copies have been made and secretly take back into Tibet so that Buddhist teaching can continue.
The hundreds of Western volunteers who built Odiyan -- complete with prayer wheels and religious flags -- believe the Buddhist faith has something to offer Americans.
Insights on life, disease, love and death.
SOUNDBITE:
America is the right places for Odiyan because it is the land of religious freedom but also there is a tremendous openness and interest here. We have come to a time in our own culture where we know something is not working right and I think especially here on the Pacific rim, it is very natural to look to the culture of Asia and those traditions and understand that they have something to offer the West which is really precious.
SUPER CAPTION: Jack Petranker, American Buddhist at Odiyan
It took 12 (m)million dollars worth of materials to build Odiyan.
Buddhist teachings are popular with many of Hollywood's famous so much of the money came from celebrity donations.
All the construction labour was provided free by volunteers.
SOUNDBITE:
This is truly a labour of love and it is something as we contribute we find we get ten times the reward to ourselves.
SUPER CAPTION: Sylvia Gretchen, Odiyan Buddhist
More than one thousand years ago a Tibetan Buddhist prophet wrote:
"When the iron bird flies and the horses run on wheels; Tibetans will be scattered throughout the world like ants, and the teachings of the Buddha will come to the land of the red man".
Those who built Odiyan believe that prophecy has become a reality -- here on the West coast of the United States.
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