Wat Mongkolratanaram

Description

For the Thai temple in Tampa, see Wat Mongkolratanaram, TampaWat Mongkolratanaram (วัดมงคลรัตนาราม) is a small Thai Buddhist temple located in Berkeley, California. A wat, it mainly attracts Thai American Buddhists, including many who are students at the University of California, Berkeley, but it also draws in many local, non-Buddhists who come searching for the authentic Thai food public brunch on Sundays or attend its frequent cultural events. The temple is home to a Thai school for San Francisco Bay Area youth, as well as Berkeley's Thai Cultural Center.In 2001, it marked 25 years of being a temple by completing renovations to its Victorian house that customized it in temple style.In February 2009, a group of neighbors sought to shut down the Sunday public brunch, citing litter and traffic. The Zoning Adjustments Board of Berkeley voted 8 to 1 to keep the Sunday brunch, and the board chair "praised the temple for being a positive influence" in the neighborhood. The brunch runs on donations; visitors pay for tokens and exchange them for dishes.The Thailand-born Ajahn Manat is the current abbot of Wat Mongkolratanaram.In 1997 the Wat was home to the East Bay chapter of the Cypherpunks.