The home of this Corona-based Buddhist monastery could easily pass for a single-family house. That's far too small to accommodate the annual kathina ceremony, at which lay members of the congregation offer donations of food as well as the saffron robes called kathin.
Even allowing for low-slung grade-school fixtures, the Woodside auditorium shown here, as well as the cafeteria and adjoining hallway, were much roomier. By arriving only in late morning, I missed the first pass through the two aisles of the buffet, so I can't compare it with the spread at Wat Buddha Thai, in Elmhurst. I did enjoy a single plate of sweets, or mostly sweets — those jade orbs, I found, were filled with ground pork.
Kathina ceremony of the New York Dhammaram Temple
Held at P.S. 11, 54-25 Skillman Ave. (54th-56th Sts.), Woodside, Queens
Late October/early November (the 2011 ceremony was held October 16)
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