San Francisco Buddha

There's a lovely article and photo gallery of Buddhist centers and temples in San Francisco in today's New York Times. Unfortunately the captions and text that go with the photos needed more work.

The three Buddhist establishments pictured in the gallery are the Tien Hau Temple, the Buddhist Church of San Francisco and the San Francisco Zen Center. My understanding is that the historic Tien Hau is a Taoist, not Buddhist, temple, although in China elements of Taoism and Buddhism often intermingle.

The Buddhist Church of San Francisco was established by Japanese immigrants in 1898. The article identifies BCSF as a Jodo Shu establishment, but according to the BCSF web site it is Jodo Shinshu. Jodo Shu and Jodo Shinshu are both schools of Pure Land Buddhism in Japan, but the two institutions differ somewhat in doctrine and practice. Photo gallery captions get the Jodo Shinshu part right, but the caption to photo #9 identifies Pure Land as a sect of Zen. It is not.

I don't believe there are any serious inaccuracies in the article about the San Francisco Zen Center. However, the monks and priests in the photos are not identified in the captions, which I found frustrating. I understand the fellow sitting in the courtyard in photo #6 is Senior Priest Lou Hartman, but I cannot identify anyone else.