Dong Hung Temple - Buddhist Education Center

05/16/2026

A Journey Home: Veteran Returns Historic Bell to Vietnamese Community After More than 50 Years.

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA — For over half a century, a piece of history sat quietly in the care of an American veteran. Now, that artifact has finally returned to its roots.
On May 12, 2026, Charles Haines, a veteran who served during the Vietnam War, officially presented a historic bell to the D**g Hung Temple in Virginia Beach—fulfilling a personal mission to return the artifact he had kept safe since 1968.
An Unexpected Custodian
Charles’s history with the bell began unexpectedly at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where he was stationed during his military service. Someone had left the bell behind in his quarters. When his time at the base came to an end in 1968, Charles couldn't bear the thought of leaving the artifact behind to be discarded or forgotten.
"I was not willing to leave the bell there," Charles shared. "So I took it... believing that I would find a place for it, somewhere, somehow."
Charles served a tour of duty in Vietnam from 1962 to 1968, spending a year and a half in Pleiku and another six months in Phan Thiết. While he never knew the exact origin or specific history of the bell, it remained a constant companion in his life for nearly six decades.
A Long-Awaited Return
A decade ago, Charles returned to Vietnam as a visitor alongside his wife, a trip that deepened his affection for the country and its culture. "I really like Vietnam, very much," he noted, recalling travels that took him from Hanoi to various regions across the country.
As time passed, Charles remained determined to see the bell placed where it truly belonged. That determination led him to reach out to the D**g Hung Temple, a vibrant center for the Vietnamese Buddhist community in Hampton Roads.
While the exact lineage of the bell remains a mystery for historians to solve, its ultimate destination is no longer in question. For Charles, the donation is less about the artifact’s past and more about doing what is right for its future.
"The most important thing is that it has been returned to the Vietnamese people and to Buddha," Charles said. "And that's all I want to do."
Thanks to Charles's lifelong stewardship and his presentation on May 12, a journey that began in the tumultuous years of the 1960s has finally found a peaceful and

05/05/2026

05/01/2026

Travel with Chuc Thanh

Williamsburg

Statue Dedication

It was indeed an auspicious moment on April 24, Friday afternoon, to attend the blessing of a recently gifted 19th-century Burmese Buddha statue at the College of William and Mary. Venerable Dharma Master Chuc Thanh, who was accompanied by other monastics from Đông Hưng Temple - Buddhist Education Center of America in Virginia Beach and Đông Phước Temple in Newport News transformed the event into an opportunity for spiritual renewal.

As a faculty member and Buddhist practitioner, I have to admit that I was amazed at the number of students in attendance on a late Friday afternoon so close to exam week, but then I thought, this event is exactly what they needed during such a stressful time-a moment of spiritual reflection that the teachings of Buddha can still offer internal peace even in a whirlwind of academic activities.

After consecrating the statue of Buddha Shakyamuni, Chuc Thanh offered a teaching that no matter where we are, no matter what our station of life is, we all have the opportunity to offer compassion and love to one another. As he spoke, we were reminded of the true symbolic meaning of the relic that we have a universal obligation to our fellow man to offer compassion and kindness to whomever we meet. That I thought this is why these statues and other works of arts become sacred. They are physical reminders in a material world, that we all should make time to stop and consider how we live and apply our spiritual values.

After reflecting on Chuc Thanh's words of wisdom, I felt how perfectly they summarized the first essential teaching given by the Buddha immediately after his enlightenment in Bodhgaya, India; just place the suffering of others as important as our own suffering. This is the key theme in Buddha's Four Noble Truths; there is suffering, there is a cause of suffering, there is an end of suffering, and finally, the fourth, there is a way leading to the end of suffering.

As Chuc Thanh led prayer and chanting, you could feel the room became more peaceful and calm. One could sense the students, faculty and staff relax from their busy day and anticipation of final tests and other duties. Everyone seemed to realize there was another way to approach their daily problems and challenges, and that the solution, the Noble Eightfold Path, was freely available to everyone. Amazingly simple and seemingly easy to apply, they are; right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.

I realized that I had not so much come to see an ancient relic rededicated, or just to enjoy a friendly reunion of friends and students, but more importantly to hear and feel once more these timely teachings of the Buddha and join Chuc Thanh and his monastic brothers and sisters in remembering why we are here as human beings in the first place.

Alan Flanders, PhD
The College of William and Mary

04/27/2026

Travels with Ven. Thay Thanh 😊🙏🏾

Williamsburg, Virginia -
On Friday, April 24, the William & Mary community formally welcomed a collection of sacred Buddhist objects with the help of the venerable monastics from Đông Hưng Temple - Buddhist Education Center of America in Virginia Beach and Đông Phước Temple in Newport News. The event commemorated the generous donation of several pieces of Buddhist craftwork – including Tibetan scripture tables, a hand-painted cabinet, and a ritual stand for a Buddha image – that will now be on display in the Sadler Center and the Wren Building at William & Mary.
The ceremony featured the consecration of a 19th-century Burmese Buddha image for its new home in the Sadler Center, where it will be on view amid the daily rhythms of student life: eating, studying, gathering socially, and coming together for prayer and meditation. Remarks by Venerable Chúc Thanh encouraged students and community members to look within themselves for the peace of the Buddha, emphasizing that such images serve as reminders of our own inner awakened qualities.
The event also included welcoming remarks by Monique D. Williams, director of William & Mary’s Student Center for Inclusive Excellence; Eric Margiotta, director of Student Unions and Engagement; and Professor Kevin Vose of William & Mary's Religious Studies department. The ceremony concluded with food and refreshments generously provided by the Student Center for Inclusive Excellence.
This invaluable gift, and the ceremony marking its arrival, were made possible through the generosity of Sandy Song, whose donation has enabled these pieces to find a new home at William & Mary. It is our hope that their presence on campus – and their reverent reception through this event – will allow them to serve both as educational cultural heritage objects and as sources of spiritual sustenance for members of the university community.
Ben Steinman, William & Mary Class of 2026

02/12/2026

Walk For Peace Meditation at D**g Hung Temple

On the evening of Feb 11th, a beautiful gathering of people showed up at our temple to meditate in solidarity with the Venerable Bhante Paññakara's Walk For Peace - Loving Kindness Meditation in DC.
As I watched our Buddha Hall fill up with people dedicated to spreading peace and unity, and to being a part of an inspiring movement, I was filled with a sense of joy.
We met and greeted each other informally, then once everyone had settled into their seats, on cousins or benches, we slid into a brief introduction as to the far reaching, global impact of this 2,300 mile walk and its mission, and how so many have joined in solidarity with the WFP monks,people from all faiths and traditions, as well as atheists and agnostics. Total inclusion.
The meditative part of the evening opened with the reading of the Buddha’s teaching on Loving Kindness, the Karaniya Metta Sutra, which invites our hearts and minds into a place that seeks only good, and of unconditional Loving-kindness for all living beings, no matter how distant, no matter how small, without judgement. With our minds quieted into a space of openness by these verses, a guided meditation followed. Its guidance brought our focus inward, going deeper and deeper, letting go of all external distractions, until we could reach into our own unconditioned True Nature of Stillness, Compassion and Peace. Once reached, we were invited to embrace it and to spread it outward first to our own conditioned identity, then, step by step, out into the whole world and the entire universe, wishing it peace.
Thay Thanh, the Dharma Master for the English-speaking Sangha at our temple, then spoke to us on various meanings of the word “peace” and how the meaning might change in different situations. For Gaza, peace would be the end of war. For someone starving, peace would be food to eat. For someone experiencing a domestic feud, peace would be getting out of the house. But he reminded us that these ideas of peace, although true indeed for the moment, are circumstantial. In Buddhism, however, peace is, and must be, internal for it to be true. It cannot come from external conditions. With the cultivation of this inner peace, all the conditions of the external world can be met with less suffering. In closing, he reassured us that the recognition of reality as-it-is without judgement, the understanding of the true nature of impermanence, and the recognition of our own true nature of unconditional peace, are the key to inner peace.
We ended the evening by handing out tokens of the Walk For Peace, sharing our merit with all beings, and having a photo shoot. Thank you to all who gathered.
And remember: “Today is going to be my peaceful day.” Say it with a sense of commitment.

10/29/2025

Announcement

During the Fall Retreat (Lazy Retreat) and Great Compassion Festival held on October 18–19, 2025, at D**g Hung Temple, someone left behind a pair of rings in the temple restroom.

If you are the owner of these rings, please contact the monks at the temple to claim them.

Ven. Chuc Do
📞 757-305-7498

Thông báo

Ngày tu học mùa thu Lazy retreat ngày 18 -19 tháng 10 năm 2025 vừa qua, lễ Quan Âm) có vị nào bỏ quên đôi nhẫn trong restroom của chùa Đông Hưng.

Ai là chủ nhân của cặp nhẫn trên, vui lòng liên lạc với quý thầy tại chùa để nhận lại .
Thầy Chúc Độ
7573057498

10/19/2025

Respectfully Bow to Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara

In this life, there are those who believe and those who do not believe in Your presence.
I understand that believing or not believing is not what truly matters.

In this world, because this exists, that exists;
when this ceases to be, that also fades away.
Faith, prayer, and the practice following Your path are the same.

Yet there is one truth that everyone must acknowledge:
Your boundless compassion and capacity for deep listening
are already present within every sentient being.
To follow Your path is to cultivate these very qualities—
to create drops of sweet nectar within our own hearts,
to plant groves of willow trees from our own compassion,
to soothe and extinguish the fires of anger and delusion,
to fill in the chasms of error and wrong view within ourselves.

To listen deeply to our own hearts,
to hear the suffering of others,
and to be there in time—
to comfort, to share, and to bring peace.

With sincere devotion,
I dedicate this ceremony to the remembrance of
Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara.

08/15/2025

Ullambana Day D**g Hung Temple - Buddhist Education Center

07/22/2025