Wat Phra Dhammakaya Manchester ( th, วัดเจริญภาวนา แมนเชสเตอร์; ), also known in English as the North-West Centre for Buddhist Meditation, is a Thai Buddhist temple in

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

, England. Established on 8 February 2004 in a converted curtain-rail factory, it was the first Thai Buddhist temple in the northwest of England. The temple was named Wat Phra Dhammakaya Manchester by the Thai community, and was consecrated with the blessing of the Most Venerable Phrarajbhavanavimol, head of the Thai Buddhist mission to England. The temple was accepted as an official place for religious worship (no.81212) on 4 June 2004 with the help of the Thai Culture Forum UK. Originally the temple had no Buddha image. The eight-foot Buddha image which has pride of place in the main shrine room was rescued from a roadside in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

. The temple runs a variety of pastoral services for the Buddhist community in Manchester and marks most of the events in the Thai Buddhist calendar. A variety of evening classes on

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

and

meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally cal ...

are run on weekdays and Thai language classes on weekends.

External links

* {{coord, 53.4923, -2.2815, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Buddhist temples in England Thai Theravada Buddhist temples and monasteries Religious buildings and structures in Greater Manchester Overseas Thai Buddhist temples Thai diaspora in Europe Dhammakaya tradition 2004 establishments in England