Das Buddhistische Haus
The Buddhist House is a Buddhist temple or Vihara in Berlin and is considered the oldest Buddhist temple in Europe.
History
The builder of the Buddhist house was the doctor and writer Paul Dahlke, who ran a practice in Berlin and had met on his trips to Asia Buddhism. It was 1900 and even Buddhist teachers of this religion, translated a number of ancient Buddhist scriptures from the old Indian Pali language into German and was the " Neubuddhistische magazine" out.
In the autumn of 1919 was found to acquire for him a favorable opportunity, a pine with stock heath area of approximately 36,500 m² in Berlin- Frohnau. As a center of the Buddhist religion he left there in 1923 by the architect Max Meyer Pankower the villa-like residence with the underlying set, decorated in a Japanese style temple built. Construction funded by generous donations Dahlke, but also by their own means. The grounds he planned even after his interpretations of Buddhist teachings. In August 1924, the construction of the " Buddhist House " was so far advanced that Dahlke could move in with his housekeeper and some fellow Buddhists in it. 1926 another temple was built.
The "Buddhist house" was conceived as a place for inner purification, to the extent this can be achieved in a compromise between the Buddhist monk and the life as a Western terms. There could not be a monastery, for the material and spiritual conditions were not sufficient. There was a middle path solution between a monastery and a layman whereabouts. The " Five Rules " were the minimum requirement for the behavior of the living ends here.
The " German Dharmaduta Society " (GDS ), founded on 21 September 1952 by Asoka Weeraratna, acquired the property from the heirs of Dr. Dahlke in 1957 and organized this into a Buddhist Vihara with resident monks herein, and from Sri Lanka other countries were sent.
Today
Since 2000, the house of Tissa Weeraratna is managed. In the summer of 2005, the current representative of the German Dharmaduta Society in Germany, even Buddhist layman who previously working there monks and employees dismissed. He runs the place now along with a Western, English-speaking monk. The German patrons of the house founded in 2007 new.
The house was home to a number of international, monastic guests and some permanent monks. There are also more and more famous visitors, most recently on February 2, 2007, when the recently elected into office Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka, Rohitha Bogollagama, visited the house.
There will continue regularly scheduled lectures, discussions and retreats. Meditation room and library are open during the day and visitors.
Architecture
One enters the property through the construction of a Ceylonese Elephant modeled. Before that there is a steep staircase with 73 steps up, symbolizing the Noble Eightfold Path of Buddha for salvation from the suffering of impermanence. Behind the house there is a gathering place and the "deepening pond ", a plant which symbolizes the four sinkings of the practitioner until the establishment of the state free of happiness and suffering. In the living house is an extensive library. A little off is the Formerly an outbuilding in 1974 in a guest house Ceylon house. In the garden is a stone sculpture of the goddess of mercy, Kannon, to see which was donated in 1959 by the Japanese city of Nagoya. At an unknown point of the garden Dahlke was buried; 1988 was brought to his tribute to a plaque at the entrance gate.
" The Buddhist House " is now a national treasure and is a listed building. In addition, the green spaces at Buddhist House are listed as a memorial garden.