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<P class=subhed>SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER</P>
<P class=rddateline>Tuesday, January 11, 2005 · Last updated 12:56 p.m. PT</P>
<P class=rdheadline><STRONG><FONT size=6>Canadian Buddhists sell temple to raise
$450,000 in aid</FONT></STRONG></P>
<P class=rdbyline>THE ASSOCIATED PRESS</P><!--BEGIN ARTICLE-->
<P>BURNABY, British Columbia -- A small Buddhist congregation in this Vancouver
suburb has sold one of its temples to raise money for tsunami victims.</P>
<P><STRONG><FONT size=5>Abbot Thick Nguyen gave $450,000 - all the proceeds from
sale of the Vietnamese Buddhist Congregation's temple in this Fraser Valley town
- to the Canadian Red Cross on Monday.</FONT></STRONG></P>
<P>The small group still has its main temple here.</P>
<P>"This is phenomenal. It's one of the largest, if not the largest, donations
the Canadian Red Cross has received from anyone in British Columbia," Red Cross
spokeswoman Carmen MacKenzie said.</P>
<P>A Vancouver-area Tibetan Buddhist group agreed to purchase the temple after
media reports about the planned sale.</P>
<P>The subsidiary temple had been on the market for a year to raise funds for a
larger replacement. Thick Nguyen told the congregation on New Year's Day he had
decided to accept the highest offer and donate the proceeds to tsunami
relief.</P>
<P>The contribution is partly to thank the people of the Philippines, Indonesia
and Malaysia for their help in the 1970s, the abbot said through an interpreter.
Three decades ago, he said, these nations accepted him and others fleeing the
Communist government in Vietnam.</P>
<P>"When the abbot made his announcement, a lot of people dropped their jaws,
but after a day went by, everybody began supporting him wholeheartedly," Dr. Vi
Liet Nguyen, a temple board member, told the Vancouver Sun.</P>
<P>"The idea of giving $500,000 to help survivors of the tsunami is not
unprecedented, but the idea of giving up a whole temple to help victims touched
a lot of people around the world," said Phien Nguyen, a director of the
Vietnamese Buddhist group.</P><!--END ARTICLE--></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>