Watt Munisotaram was built by the Cambodian refugee community in Minnesota. The story behind its creation is one of resilience and a profound need to preserve cultural and spiritual heritage after fleeing the genocide in Cambodia.
In the early 1980s, a small group of Cambodian refugees who had settled in Minnesota came together with the goal of establishing a Buddhist monastery. They contacted the main Buddhist temple in Washington, D.C., which sent the Venerable Chey Siddhi San to serve as the first abbot. The community then formed the Minnesota Cambodian Buddhist Society, Inc., a nonprofit organization, which initially held services in a rented house in Minneapolis.
As the community grew, they purchased a 40-acre piece of land in Hampton in 1988. Over the following decades, with funding from the Cambodian Buddhist Society and the generosity of Buddhist communities across the U.S., they began the long process of building the current, magnificent temple. The construction, designed by Cambodian architect Yav Socchea, was completed in 2007. The temple serves as a vital spiritual and cultural anchor, a place of healing, and a way to pass on traditions to future generations.
