Buddhists Mourn Monks, Layman Killed in Crash

NORTH HOLLYWOOD — Southern California Buddhists and monks from temples throughout the state gathered Friday at the Wat Thai temple at a service for six Thai monks and a layman who died in a van accident on Interstate 5 near Coalinga earlier this week.

About 500 mourners, including 30 monks from out of town, came to the temple on Coldwater Canyon Avenue for Friday’s service. Two other evening services, planned for today and Sunday, are expected to draw about the same number, said the Venerable Supharp Sikkhasabho, a temple leader.

“We wish them to go to heaven, to go to a good place,” he said of the six monks described as “high rulers” of temples in Thailand and a member of the North Hollywood temple who died in the accident Monday.

The accident occurred as the party of 14 was returning to North Hollywood from the San Francisco area, one of their last stops on a tour of American Buddhist temples. California Highway Patrol investigators said the driver of the van lost control on the interstate near Coalinga and the van flipped and rolled several times, hurling passengers who were not wearing seat belts onto the roadway. Seven others were injured.

By Friday, only two remained in a Fresno hospital--one in critical condition and one expected to be released soon, said Sungvien Chuntharapai, a spokeswoman for the Wat Thai temple.

She said two others were recovering at a temple in Fresno and three more had been brought to Southern California and were resting at friends’ homes.

On Friday, lines of laymen and visiting monks dressed in orange robes filed into a room adorned with flowers and bowed before the open caskets, their hands pressed together in prayer.

The six Thai monks--Phrakhru Nonthawaranuwat, Phrakhru Sukhumthammawong, Phrakhru Kasemjariyaphirom, Phrakhru Sangkharakjaroon, Phrakhru Sirinontakun, and Phra Kluen Khakkaharo--wore orange robes in their brown coffins.

Layman Armorn Balangkrura rested in a white coffin.

“I told him, ‘If you don’t have a job, go to the temple and help people,” said his father, Ampol Balangkrura, remembering that his son loved helping around the temple.

“Everything is changing and we have to die,” said Bhante Siriniwasa, a monk at the Sarathchandra Buddhist Center in North Hollywood. “Now, we are thinking more about the impermanence of the world.”

Sikkhasabho said the temple has gotten numerous calls from worried Buddhists in Thailand seeking details of the accident.

“Nobody expected this,” he said. “The people in Thailand right now are so sad.”

The bodies will remain at the North Hollywood temple for ceremonies from 7:30 to 9 p.m. today and Sunday, Sikkhasabho said. They are scheduled to be flown late Sunday to Thailand, where they will be cremated.

Said Bhante Kolitha, another monk at the Sarathchandra Buddhist Center: “We lost our big teachers.”