Personal Narrative: My Visit To The Thien Hau Temple

On Saturday March 24th I went to the Thien Hau Temple in Chinatown. I went to the temple with my friend Bianca and I met up with Tyler in our class. When we were first given the assignment I knew I wanted to visit a Buddhist temple because I know they have beautiful architecture as I’ve passed by a few in Los Angeles. I don’t know a lot about Buddhism except for the few things I learned about it in middle school. I wanted to visit the Hsi Lai temple in Hacienda Heights, but I couldn’t due to time restraints. Instead I visited the Thien Hau temple, I passed by this temple once about a year ago at night so it was closed, but I was always curious about it.

I prepared my visit to the temple by searching for specific things you can’t do in a temple, I wanted to make sure to not wear anything inappropriate or offensive and if

I was nervous at first because I really didn’t know what to expect or if I would even be welcomed, but all of the people were very kind. In fact, when I was observing the service and elder woman came to sit next to me, she was extremely kind and talked to me in Vietnamese. I couldn’t understand her, but I knew she was trying to tell me something about the fish that were swimming in the fish tank next to me. I was very thankful that the people were very kind and tried to help us as much as they could even though there was a language barrier. I felt very welcomed being there and learning about Taoism was very enlightening and fascinating to say the least. I could tell that the chanting/ singing of the prayers was almost like an offering to the deity’s, listening to the chanting was very relaxing for me. I know for Kara the temple is important to her because it has helped her shape her life and give her guidance. I believe it serves the same for other people. I believe the temple and service is very significant to elder people of Vietnamese and Chinese