ONLINE: Honoring Our Asian American Buddhist Ancestors

The March 16th Atlanta shootings claimed the lives of eight people, six of them women of Asian descent, including 63-year-old Buddhist, Yong Ae Yue. Yue’s tragic death follows upon months of unrelenting racist taunts and violence against Asian Americans, including the senseless assault of 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee in San Francisco. His daughter, who herself had been accosted twice in the past year and told to go back to Asia because “Asians caused the coronavirus,” described her father as a devout Thai Buddhist; his funeral was held at Wat Buddhanusorn in Fremont, California. Our temples have also come under attack. Six Vietnamese American temples in Orange County, California were vandalized in a single month; an outdoor Buddhist statue was spray-painted with the word “Jesus” at Huong Tich Temple. More recently, the Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple in Los Angeles was damaged when windows were smashed, lanterns broken, and the building set on fire.

Rev. Duncan Williams will speak about the National Buddhist Memorial Ceremony for Asian American Ancestors scheduled on May 4, 2021 – Forty-nine days after the Atlanta shootings. Forty-nine days after death marks an important transition for the bereaved in many Buddhist traditions.