Source: Los Angeles Times

On June 26, 1999, the Los Angeles Times reported that the Hoa Hao Buddhist Church of Santa Ana, California will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Hoa Hao Buddhism Foundation on Sunday, June 27th, 1999. "Hoa Hao Buddhism was originated in 1939 by prophet Huynh Phu So in the southern Vietnam village of Hoa Hao in the Mekong Delta. Its members hold the basic Buddhist tenets of nonviolence, moderation and vegetarianism."

Source: Los Angeles Times

On June 19, 1999, the Los Angeles Times published an article about the official ascension of Wendy Egyoku Nakao, an American of Japanese and Portuguese descent who has become the new abbot of the Zen Center of Los Angeles. She has already begun changes that will move the Center from its Japanese roots to a more American influence of "social action, interfaith work, and egalitarian exchange." In the last few years, Nakao has added women's names to the liturgical recitation of the male lineage of her Soto sect, created more gender...

Source: Star Tribune

On June 6, 1999, the Star Tribune reported that Steven Seagal spoke at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul to an audience of 600 on June 4th, 1999 to raise money for schools in Tibet and for the Minneapolis Shambhala Center, which is part of an international network that promotes Buddhist teachings. Seagal, a devout Buddhist who was controversially dubbed an incarnate lama in 1997, is currently on hiatus from Hollywood in order to devote more time to his "compulsive teaching sprees."

Source: New York Daily News

On June 5, 1999, the Daily News published an article describing this year's Change Your Mind Day. It is a five-hour festival of music, poetry, contemplative exercises, and introduction to meditation that is to be held in Central Park. Scheduled to perform or speak are composer Philip Glass, poet Anne Waldman, author Sharon Salzberg, and Nicholas Vreeland, a Buddhist monk who runs the Tibet Center in midtown Manhattan. Rande Brown, who organized the New York event, stated: "Teachers will demonstrate techniques of meditation and...

Source: The New York Times

On June 5, 1999, The New York Times published an article on the busy summer for public Buddhist events in the United States. June 5th is the sixth annual Change Your Mind Day, which is a "free program being offered...to introduce people to Buddhist meditation." The event is sponsored by Tricycle: The Buddhist Review and is being held in New York City, San Francisco, and Williamsport, Pennsylvania. On July 10th, Buddhists in Alaska will hold a similar event in Anchorage. On the morning of August 15th, the Dalai Lama will...

Source: The San Francisco Chronicle

On June 4, 1999, The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Change Your Mind Day will take place at Golden Gate Park on June 5th. The event is being held for the first time outside of New York City's Central Park. The Buddhists in San Francisco plan to hook up with their counterparts in New York via cell phone during a meditation session. The San Francisco event is sponsored by the San Francisco Zen Center, Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Marin County, California, and the Bay Area Shambhala Centers.

Source: The Tampa Tribune

On May 8, 1999, The Tampa Tribune reported that the Parbawatiya Buddhist Center will open a new home in Safety Harbor, Florida, with opening ceremonies to be held May 15-16. The Center, which is moving from a house in Clearwater to a former cafe and gift shop in downtown Safety Harbor, will provide a greater "sense of belonging" for the 50 regular attendees of the Center's programs. Nick Gillespie, resident teacher of the Center, stated: "With the new center, we are looking to establish some program to give back to the community....

Source: The San Francisco Chronicle

On April 2, 1999, The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the Buddhist nuns of Khachoe Ghakyll Nunnery in Kathmandu, Nepal created a sand mandala at Holy Names College in Oakland. The five-foot diameter mandala was created to represent compassion and the recent gender breakthrough of Tibetan Buddhist nuns to create sand mandalas and to earn the Geshe, the equivalent of a Doctor of Divinity. To become a Geshe, a nun must study for about 25 years in meditation and the creation of sacred art. Cheryl Gipson, organizer of...

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

On March 15, 1999, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Geshe Lhundup Sopa, a retired Buddhist Studies professor from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UWM), has been invited to hold the Gamaliel Chair, which is an annual position sponsored by the Lutheran campus ministry of UWM to offer "unique perspectives on how to bring peace and justice to the world." Sopa, friend and teacher of the Dalai Lama and one of the world's top scholars in Tibetan Buddhism, is the first Buddhist to ever hold the Gamaliel Chair....

Source: The Times-Picayune

On March 14, 1999, The Times-Picayune published an article on the Lotus Lake Drikung Dharma Center, a new Tibetan Buddhist center in New Orleans, that is holding a weekly meditation practice, open to the public, on Tuesday nights and plans to invite Buddhist teachers to lecture. Greg Eveline, director of the center, stated: "We hope that by introducing meditation and the Buddhist teachings of love and compassion to the people, we can create a more peaceful and harmonious community here in New Orleans." The center is affiliated...

Source: No source given.

On March 10, 1999, Hsi Lai University in Rosemead, California announced that the International Academy of Buddhism (IAB) came into existence on January 1, 1999 and that it has been approved as an Associated Center for research and training of the World Buddhist University. Located on the Hsi Lai campus, the IAB serves to support the efforts of Fo Guang Shan to further the ideals and objectives of Humanistic Buddhism.

Source: The Seattle Times

On March 10, 1999, The Seattle Times published an article entitled, "Seattle Buddhist Temple in Transition to Survive."

Source: Sacramento Bee

On February 20, 1999, the Sacramento Bee published an article on the Buddhist Church of Sacramento, which is celebrating its 100th Anniversary this year. Emigrants from Japan founded the church in 1899 and it functioned as a haven for first and second generation Japanese Americans from discrimination and segregation. Rev. Bob Oshita, a minister at the church for 15 years, emphasized that the church "was a religious and cultural center, the center of their community" for the early Japanese immigrants. Today's Japanese Americans in...

Source: The Kansas City Star

On February 13, 1999, The Kansas City Star reported that the Mindfulness Meditation Foundation has plans to build a Tibetan Buddhist Monastery and an Institute of Buddhist Studies in Kansas City, Missouri. A $1 million capital campaign has been launched by area leaders to build a facility that can house classrooms, a practice center, and a small monastery for 3 to 5 monks. Patterned after Buddhist monasteries and institutes at Cornell and Emory Universities, the new Buddhist center is planning to ally with area universities and...

Source: The Houston Chronicle

On February 13, 1999, The Houston Chronicle reported on the newest Buddhist worship center in Houston, the Texas Guandi Temple. The temple honors Guandi, a "Chinese Buddhist guardian deity known for virtue, honesty, and power over evil spirits." The temple to Guandi was prompted by a hold up in 1989 of a grocery store owned by Charles Loi Ngo. Ngo prayed to Guandi during the crime and narrowly avoided death. Ngo founded the Hai Nam Association, a community group of 200 Asian families that raised the funds for the temple, in...