A dispute over who controls the board of directors of Wat Lao Buddhavong, a Theravada Buddhist temple in Catlett, has caused deep rifts far beyond its walls, reaching deeply into the Washington, D.C. area’s Lao-American community.
The most visible expression of Theravada Buddhism in the United States for more than three decades, Wat Lao Buddhavong has become a center point for a conflict that is, simultaneously, legal and cultural, Lao and American, personal and ideological. The conflict does not promise to resolve easily. ...
Criminal charges have been filed against three people – including a monk - allegedly involved in actions to replace the board of directors. This week, the temple filed a civil suit against six people who, the suit claims, have caused collectively $1.25 million in damages to the temple’s reputation....
Tognini is an attorney and until recently a longtime resident of Fauquier County; she now splits her time between Florida and Northern Virginia. Not raised as a Buddhist, she came to the temple in 2000 “as a neighbor,” she says. “The monks welcomed me in, and I kept coming back.” She has since embraced Theravada Buddhism personally. She said that Kittiphanh and Mingsisouphanh are the godfathers of her children, and she has photographs of the monks at her home celebrating her children’s birthdays and other ceremonies with them. When she enters the temple, she performs the ritual of bowing before the monks before speaking to anyone else. “I am a servant,” she said of her role at the temple.
Explaining her addition to the board of directors, Tognini said that “the two older monks go on annual pilgrimages to India, and if something came up you need two people [to establish a quorum], so they asked me to be on the board. It was simply done to facilitate their wishes.” Since then she has provided advice and administrative assistance to the board of directors, but always defers to the senior monks and acts only with their knowledge, she said.
