Wallowa Buddhist Temple
A small contemplative refuge
For two decades, the Wallowa Buddhist Temple serves as a small contemplative refuge both for those in Northeast Oregon and beyond who are interested in Buddhist meditation and practice, and for monks and members of the lay congregation of our Order and others who wish to come for individual spiritual retreats in our tradition of Serene Reflection Meditation.
Temple buildings
retreat guest house.
The Wallowa Buddhist Temple is located in far Northeast Oregon, on five acres off an unpaved road, in the foothills of the Wallowa Mountains. Adjoining the temple’s original log building is a spacious room that serves as the temple’s meditation hall. With the kind help and generosity of many friends, a three-room guest house has been added near the main building.
On the left is the main temple building,
with mural on the outer wall of the meditation hall.
The retreat guest house is to the right.
Photo by Ty Bowen.
Peaceful grounds
The wooded grounds are peaceful and beautiful, with Eagle Cap Wilderness mountain views, and shrine areas and pathways through aspen groves and pine forests and along Hurricane Creek. It is a truly remarkable place, spiritually speaking, and perfect for a small contemplative Buddhist temple serving a local congregation and individual retreat guests.
Here at the Wallowa Buddhist Temple, we do serious spiritual work together in the context of gentle kindness and friendliness.
Serving our local community and visitors
The Wallowa Buddhist Temple is a part of our unique and close-knit community here in Oregon’s remote Wallowa County. In addition to welcoming members of our local Buddhist congregation regularly for sittings, services, and seasonal festivals, the temple monks are available upon request for spiritual counseling for neighbors, friends, and visitors to our area. Temple monks offer spiritual support for those who are nearing the end of life as well as those anticipating an impending birth.
The monks and congregation are glad to greet new friends from near and far with a tour of the temple and grounds, and happy to answer questions about our Buddhist practice.
If you already have a Buddhist practice and are staying in the area, please call ahead at 541-432-6129 about joining us for sittings.
Photo by Carolyn Lochert.
The Wallowa Buddhist Temple offers Buddhist weddings, funerals, memorials, and naming ceremonies for children, at the temple and at other locations in our area. We have blessed local houses and businesses as well as local horses.
A history of mutual respect and involvement
The monks and our friends and neighbors are fortunate to have a history of exchanging mutual respect and involvement together in beneficial activities.
Monks have participated in such events as the Fishtrap Big Read panel discussion, a Wallowa County Rotary Club luncheon honoring Women’s History, an International Peace Day celebration at the Hurricane Creek Grange, and a Wallowa County community exhibit called “Collections” at the Josephy Center for Arts and Culture, among others.
The monks are grateful for the friendly support and kindness of so many Wallowa County organizations, clubs, agencies, small business owners and their staff over the course of two decades.
known as Kwan Im in Indonesia,
where this life-sized wooden statue was carved.
She now stands as the central figure in the temple’s shrine to Great Compassion.
A temple springs up – a brief history
at the monastery in 1983.
She trained at Shasta Abbey for over two decades as a disciple of Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett.
In 2002, after twenty-two years in the monastery, Rev. Master Meido Tuttle came to Wallowa County in response to a prompting which arose in meditation and with the blessing of then Head of the Order, the late Rev. Master Daizui MacPhillamy.
Rev. Meido first rented a small cabin overlooking the Lostine River where she sat quietly and began welcoming Buddhist friends who wished to join her for individual retreats.
After a few months, she moved her growing new temple into a rented farmhouse just outside the town of Lostine, where more friends began to sit with her regularly.
People who met Rev. Meido at yard sales or at the grocery store began to seek her out as a compassionate listener offering wise counsel. Regular group meditation was held as interest grew in the practice.
In 2005, the temple was transplanted to its permanent location on Hurricane Creek, in the foothills of the Eagle Cap Wilderness outside the town of Joseph. Since then, a small congregation has met weekly for meditation, classes, community working meditation, festivals and potlucks.
Numerous individual retreat guests began to journey regularly for short term stays over the ensuing years, from the local area and from around the Pacific Northwest, from further afield such as Canada, the U.K., Europe, and eventually Japan.
In 2010, after more than ten years of monastic training in the Order, Rev. Clairissa Beattie asked to join Rev. Meido as her disciple. She was Transmitted by Rev. Meido, and as a priest and teacher Rev. Clairissa continues to assist her in the daily services and running of the temple as well as teaching, counseling, and offering the Dharma.
Doug McDaniel in 2015.
Photo by Ruth Scott.
It soon became clear that more space was needed for guest accommodations than the main building and hall could provide. In 2012 the temple congregation and friends gathered to break ground on a three-year project to build the Retreat Guest House.
Retreat Guest House building project completed
A Collective Effort
During the three-year process of planning and building the temple retreat guest house, it was a joy to host the many generous, hard-working volunteers and skilled craftspeople of Wallowa and Union Counties who pitched in alongside the monks and our guest helpers from afar, at all stages of design and construction.
The temple’s Retreat Guest House was built under the direction of local contractor Eric Carlson.
Here they are installing the working main door to the new Retreat Guest House.
Here he is preparing the locally milled posts for installation on the guest house porch.
newly built in time for winter snows.
Enthusiastic support from friends of the temple
The monks have delighted in the company and enthusiasm of innumerable benevolent friends in our congregation and from the local community, who together supported the temple’s guest house building project by organizing, sponsoring, provisioning, hosting, performing in and attending temple fundraising benefits including dinners, auctions, rummage sales, and concerts.
Indian Dinner Fundraisers – A local favorite!
Indian Dinner temple fundraiser.
For five years in a row, Wallowa Lake restaurant owner Steve Roundy wholeheartedly offered exclusive use of his entire restaurant facility at Russells at the Lake for the temple’s annual Indian Dinner fundraiser.
Enterprise chef and caterer Erin Donovan and her volunteer staff lovingly prepared a full menu of traditional Indian specialties including curry, saag paneer, dal, chutneys, papadam, ginger lemonade, and much more.
The Reininger family, founders of chocolatiers Arrowhead Chocolates in Joseph, donated specialty cardamon truffles as part of an array of dessert options.
Gardeners and others from around the county donated freshly-grown produce and other ingredients.
at one of several annual Indian Dinner fundraisers, held at
Russells At The Lake restaurant in Wallowa Lake.
As the yearly dinners grew in popularity, at each annual event up to 120 meals were planned, publicized, prepared, served, and cleaned up after, thanks to the willing help of a full staff made up entirely of volunteers.
Wallowa County folks do enjoy a good gathering!
Other Fundraising Events – Coming Together
Other fundraisers were conceived and realized as the temple building project progressed. These included a baked potato movie night at Fishtrap’s Coffin House, a silent auction dinner and concert at the Wallowa Lake Methodist Camp hall, various rummage sale and tables at an annual Enterprise flea market, and a Buddha Art Show at a Joseph cafe.
In 2013, a collection of eleven local musicians had the generous idea of getting together to hold a Temple Benefit Concert at a private home on Alder Slope outside of Enterprise. Again a group of helpers appeared and rolled up sleeves to make it all happen, inviting the monks to participate as well. Rev. Clairissa offered a short instruction and then led a sing-along of a Buddhist scripture, accompanied by her on the pipe organ.
2013 Temple Benefit Concert photos by Heidi Muller.
Rev. Master Jiyu’s use of plainsong and organ for scripture recitation during the concert.
Audience members prepare to sing along!
at the Benefit Concert.
Truly, life at the Wallowa Buddhist Temple is interwoven with the lives of so many dear friends and supporters in our community who have embraced the existence of a Buddhist temple in their midst. The gratitude from the monks and our guests and congregation is boundless, for their many offerings and for their kind, steadfast support and benevolent presence.
Dwelling together in this sacred place
This secluded corner of the Pacific Northwest is the heart of the homeland of the Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) people. The monks join the many residents of Wallowa County who rejoice at the return of the indigenous inhabitants of this peaceful, sacred place.
The Wallowas are a place of high alpine forested wilderness, glacial lake basins and terminal moraines, fertile grasslands and rolling prairie ribboned with clear winding rivers. This land is bordered in three directions by high mountains, and to the east by the deep Snake River Canyon. Reaching the temple can be a pilgrimage of some distance for those who find their way here.
Eagle Cap Wilderness.