Sad Farewell for Thai Buddhist Worshipers : Religion: Monk must return to homeland while new temple waits for his replacement.

Only five months ago, the first Thai Buddhist temple in San Diego County opened in a quiet Escondido neighborhood, after a yearlong effort by the county’s small Thai community to build a place of worship they could call their own.

But Saturday, the temple’s faithful bid farewell to their monk, Chamroen Kunthee, who is returning to Thailand because his visa has expired.

“It is our belief that the monk is the one who practices the religion and we must support him. We cannot have a temple without a monk, otherwise we will just have an empty building,” said Vatana Tantraphol, who comes from Rancho Penasquitos to worship. “The temple is nothing without the monk.”

More than 100 Buddhists from all over the county have come to visit the temple, called Wat Buddhajakramongkolratanaram, many of them visiting during the weekdays to prepare meals for the monk and help maintain the temple.

Followers of Buddhism believe that by supporting the monk they earn merit toward a better life after death. During a solemn ceremony Saturday, the faithful knelt on the floor, bowed their heads and chanted prayers asking for safe passage for Kunthee, who sat at the front of the room, a cordless telephone on a pillow next to him.

Worshipers burned candles symbolizing eternal sunshine and tied white threads around the monk’s wrist for good luck. Paintings of Buddha hung on the wall behind Kunthee, while a 6-foot statue of Buddha stood against another wall.

From the outside, the beige, one-story building with its neat garden and well-trimmed lawn blends in with its residential neighbors.

Until a replacement monk arrives, monks from temples in Berkeley and Tampa, Fla., will take turns serving at the temple in Escondido, Tantraphol said.

“So far, there has not been a day that a monk has not been here, but I feel that it may be empty for a while,” said Jim Sterritt, who helped organize the temple.

A monk in Thailand plans to live permanently at the Escondido temple, but he only recently applied for a visa and it will be months before he arrives, Tantraphol said.

“We will hopefully have a continuity of monks coming here, so we will be able to” worship, Tantraphol said.

The small Thai community had worked since February, 1990, to raise about $22,000 to buy the four-room building that had once been a child care center belonging to a local Mormon church.

“We felt we needed one here because we only have one temple in Los Angeles, which can be very inconvenient,” said Daranee Boonsue.

There are only four other Buddhist temples in the county, but none of them are Thai, Tantraphol said. A Japanese Buddhist temple opened in Vista in 1981, and there are two Cambodian temples and a Laotian temple in San Diego. Although the religion is practiced and interpreted in similar ways by the Cambodians and Laotians, the language used in ceremonies is different and there are a few cultural differences, Tantraphol said.

Kunthee, 34, said he will be leaving behind a lot of unfinished work.

“I really want to stay, because by staying here, I can do a lot for the community,” he said through an interpreter. “Back home, there are so many other monks, there isn’t as much work to do.”

During his stay here, Kunthee taught classes in meditation and religious training, and had planned to set up a summer school for Thai children.