The Dong Hung Temple is a religious institution dedicated to serving the followers of the Mahayana tradition of Zen Buddhism or Lam Te Chuc Thanh tradition as practiced in Vietnam.
In 1994 the Reverend Thich Thong Kinh (1958- 2018)(one of the 10th generation descendents of the Lam Te Chuc Thanh tradition) brought this Zen Sect to the United States in the Commonwealth of Virginia. In 1998 the Vietnamese Community saw the need to build a temple of their own and Master Thich Thong Kinh began the quest to create one. Once the temple was created the Master became the Abbot and named his temple after his Ancestral Temple of Dong Hung where he grew up spiritually and took his vow to monkhood. Dong Hung literally means “to spiritually maintain and strengthen the traditional teachings of the East". His wish was to make all the distinguished eastern teachings more prosperous; Buddhism being an unequivocal part of these teachings.
The Zen Sect of the Lam Te Chuc Thanh tradition is based mostly on meditation. It also applies the strict rules and discipline (Sila and Vinaya) as the foundation of cultivating one’s virtue and wisdom. This Sect has a long history. It was started with Sakyamuni Buddha (624-548 BC). Buddha reached Nirvana and ended his 45 years of teaching Buddhism to the people of India and the surrounding nations. His Great Disciples continued to propagate Buddhism in China and other countries in Asia. Bodhidharma, the 28th generation descendent of Buddha and First Zen Patriarch, brought Zen Buddhism from India to China in 520 AD. From Bodhidharma, Zen Buddhism continued to be passed down during several more generations to a Descendent who lived in parts of Vietnam, the Venerable Minh Hai Phap Bao. He developed the Lam Te Chuc Thanh tradition. His first temple was in Hoi An Vietnam and was named Chuc Thanh Temple. Venerable Minh Hai Phap Bao became the First Patriarch of this Vietnamese tradition.
More recently, The Venerable Thich Hanh Tru (1904-1984), (the 9th generation in the Lam Te Chuc Thanh tradition) along with several other Highly Venerable Elders established many temples in the South of Vietnam in or around 1934, thus propagating the Zen Sect tradition of Lam Te Chuc Thanh in that area. One of the temples he established was To Dinh Dong Hung; he lived and practiced his faith there until he passed away at the age of 80.
In the beginning, Dong Hung Temple Virginia Beach was created out of the spiritual need of the Vietnamese community residing in Virginia Beach and its surrounding areas. Since 2005, the need to reach out to a growing number of American Buddhist followers necessitated bringing a younger generation of monks from our motherland to attend to the combined Vietnamese-American sangha. The first new monks to arrive were Thich Chuc Do and Thich Chuc Thanh. Then Thich Chuc Hoi, the temple’s new Abbot, followed them later.
The temple was first located in the Kempsville section of Virginia Beach. It subsequently moved to a temporary location near the corner of Princess Anne and Witchduck Road. Since 2011, it has been located at its permanent home at 423 Davis Street in Virginia Beach. This 2 acre campus is undergoing a steady transformation from a small farm with two small wood frame buildings to a modern temple grounds. The original farm buildings currently house the Sangha Hall (residence) and Dharma Hall (multi-purpose space). The current Buddha Hall was opened in 2015. A two story addition to the Buddha Hall comprising of a kitchen, additional restroom and upstairs meeting/multi-purpose rooms is set to begin construction in the fall of 2017.