Day 8

 Day 8 - Dr. Chao Presentation and Wat Buddhavas Visit

1/16/25

Alexander McGill 

The 8th day of our J-Term started with a presentation by Dr. Anne Chao from Rice, who presented on the Asian American experience and Houston Asian American Archive. Dr. Chao is the program manager of the Houston Asian American Archive and, in doing so, has heard countless stories and interviews of Asians. She showed us a heat map of where many Asians in Houston live and divided it by where in Asia they're from. The most Asians in Houston are in Fort Bend and Montgomery Counties. In all of Houston, there are about 761,000 South Asians, 543,000 South East Asians, and 300,000 East Asians. 

After talking to Dr. Chao, we had lunch and made our way to Wat Buddhavas temple, another Buddhist temple in Houston. Wat Buddhavas practices Thai Buddhism, which is obviously what we will encounter in Thailand. We learned about common Thai greetings, hand gestures, and social norms, like not touching the monks and respecting the Thai royal family. We also practiced some meditation and different mindful exercises, which were extremely interesting. 

Afterward, we were able to walk around Wat Buddhavas outside and admire the beautiful architecture of the temple. 

Overall, day 8 was an extremely informative and exciting day. We learned about the Houston Asian American Archive with Dr. Chao and then got first-hand experience with Thai Buddhism at Wat Buddhavas.