Hakuun Zan Zenkoji
(Mountain of White Cloud / Zen Temple of Light)
It was during the last days of winter 1974 when the first Buddhist monastery in Latin America was founded. At the time, the beauty of the region around the Morro da Vargem hill had been negatively impacted by a process of devastation that caused severe imbalances. Just a few strips of vegetation resisted on the sides of the hill, a last gasp of nature to show humans that this land one day had been covered with the lush Atlantic Forest.
In the beginning, many difficulties had to be overcome. The monastery’s temples were located in little wooden houses whose roofs were covered with palm fronds. At night, all the work was done by lamplight and access was very difficult — through steep, slippery and hole-filled trails.
In took many years for the Buddhist flower planted in 1974 to take firm root on the Morro da Vargem hill. Today, the activity of the monks is routine and non-stop, following the ancestral traditions of Japanese monasteries. Thousands of trees have been planted over the course of the project, for the recovery of the Atlantic Forest on the hill. Meanwhile, thousands of groups of students have hiked the trails around the temples, as part of the monastery’s environmental education program.
The first Buddhist monastery in Latin America today is a center where Soto Zen Buddhism meets Brazilian reality in order to transmit the centuries-old teachings of Buddha, helping solve local problems.
BR-101, Km 217, Ibiraçu/ES
CEP:29670-000
tel/fax 27 3257-3030