Dining Hall
THE REFECTORY OF THE MASTER NUN CHAND KHONNOKYOONG
When the Master Nun was still alive, she had a goal of building a kitchen. The temple is a sanctuary for the search of true happiness and inner peace, along with cultivating good deeds, with many monks and novices each year. She wanted monk and novices staying at the temple to be free of worries about their next meal, and focus their full attention towards the studies of the Lord Buddha’s Dhamma and practice meditation. Thus, from the first day of building the temple, the Master Nun established a kitchen that fed all the monks, novices, and anyone who came to the temple.
After the Master Nun passed away, Luang Por Dhammajayo and all of the Master Nun’s pupils from all over the world pitched in to build the Dining Hall in memorial to the Master Nun. It is where all the monks, novices, and followers come together to have meals and remember the devotion of the Master Nun to the establishment of the temple and to meditation, so that we may follow her footsteps
Named after the founder of Wat phra Dhammakaya, the Dining Hall of Khun Yai can seat up to 6,000 monks. Everyday, lay people come to enjoy offering food and refreshments to more than 1,200 monks and novices who reside at this temple.
The spacious dining hall is frequently used to welcome visiting monks and novices. It also serves as a meeting venue for monks to chant together and/or hold a meeting as well as a place for lay people to make their offerings of food and other necessities appropriate for clergies such as saffron robes, medicine, toiletries, blankets, lotuses & garlands and so on.
At 6.30 a.m. every day the resident monks at the temple will come here to chant the morning prayers together, have breakfast, and give blessings to the people who have come to offer sustenance
At 11.00 a.m. the monks and novices gather here again for lunch which is the last meal for the ordained ones. The timing was set up during the Lord Buddha’s period over 2,500 years ago for the benefit of disciplining monks since 2 meals per day are just enough to live a sustainable life to continue practicing dhamma.
The monks and novices will offer blessings to the donors after lunch after which they will disperse to attend to their respective duties. Khun Yai Archaraya Chand Khonnokyoong left behind a legacy of benevolence. It was her dream to build a dining hall for clergies who reside in the temple and those arriving from all directions, and to be able to provide sustenance for all lay people who come to this temple, no matter how big is the number. Today, the dream of the late Khun Yai Archaraya has come true.
Khun Yai always taught her disciples to be humble, to share the joy of doing good in a team, and to look after the temple as if it were their own home. She stressed the importance of cleanliness as a sign of hospitality as it makes the temple welcoming and as a very fundamental virtue leading toward spiritual purification.
