Most Buddhist U.S. City? Pasadena, CA

OPEN CONTEST
Where is the most Buddhist place in America? In the Buddhist spirit of competition (which is essentially nonexistent), send in your nominee! WQ will post all serious contenders and let readers decide just Where is America's most Buddhist city? (Winning submissions can guest edit the site for a day). The editors have selected the first heavyweight contestant, Pasadena, CA. Here's why:

Tucked away in the foothills of greater Los Angeles, the City of Pasadena, California buzzes with Buddhism and spirituality. It rivals its sister-neighborhood Santa Monica and may even excel San Francisco, Berkeley, Naropa (Colorado), Barre (Massachusetts), and Taos (New Mexico) in its resources and connections to the Dharma.

What makes Pasadena, and Los Angeles in general, so Buddhist-friendly is not only that it's in cutting-edge California. It might be that it's surrounded by large Asian communities (particularly within the San Gabriel Valley) with parochial temples, monasteries, and centers. Pasadena is also unique in that it is home to the greatest disparity in wealth in all the U.S., with the widest range in annual household incomes (Pasadena City Weekly). Here are more than a dozen Buddhist resources in this Kathmandu-like foothill community.

• 
  Dreams of Tibet: Kathmandu Imports a treasure trove of all things Tibetan, Himalayan, and exotically Buddhist.
• Los Angeles Buddhist Vihara (Sri Lankan Theravada), a working Sinhalese monastery (wihara) with a very active Bangladeshi Buddhist community (Bodhi Mission), this temple and shrine offers a variety of services, free meditation, and access to monks.
• Buddha Nimit Temple (Thai Theravada), a working Thai monastery (wat) with a very active Indonesian Buddhist community (DhammaCakraTra).
• Pasadena Buddhist Church (Japanese Jodo Shinshu).

• Neighborhood Unitarian Campus has Buddhist meditation nearly every night of the week: Zen PasaDharma group; Vajrayana Bodhi Path Pasadena, New Kadampa Tradition Pasadena (transformyourlifeinla.org, a Dorje Shugden sect/cult); other Open Sky Meditation with Shri John Karuna, and more.
• Like Nalanda, Pasadena is a multiple-college town: Cal Tech (with NASA/JPL nearby), Art Center College of Design, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena City College, and the now defunct Worldwide Church of God Christian campus Ambassador College.
• Alexandria II Bookstore -- Read a book under a Bodhi tree, but beware of falling figs. California's most spiritual bookstore (the Bodhi Tree) may be located in West Hollywood, but this shop offers all the same things just on a smaller scale. (By the way, the first "Alexandria" was in Egypt).

• Yoga studios galore: The Awareness Center, Mission Street Yoga (with Tantric Buddhist owners), Dahn Yoga, Yoga House, Bikram Pasadena, Lululemon, Dharma Yoga Co-op, Yoga at Neighborhood Church, and smaller outlets...
• Insight Yoga: Founded by Vipassana teacher Rick Coella (student of Shin Zen Young), Pasadena was also once home to the first full Buddhism+Yoga fusion studio featuring a moving mindfulness practice, traditional yoga, and healing body work. Coella now teaches privately in the area.

Norton Simon Museum Wrathful Deities of Buddhist Art: 8/14/09–3/8/10

• Museums with world-class permanent Buddhist art collections and periodic cultural exhibitions: Pacific Asia Museum; the world famous Norton Simon (now displaying Divine Demons: Wrathful Deities of Buddhist Art), and the Pasadena Museum of History.
• Pasadena Civic Auditorium a pilgrimage site for the Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh, the Civic is a venerable convention center complex that in addition annually welcomes various spiritual and science expositions (e.g., Body-Mind-Spirit Expo).
• Shambhala Meditation Center (Trungpa Rimpoche inspired Tibetan-American Vajrayana) sits along Pasadena's main street, Colorado Blvd., though technically over the hill in the neighborhood of Eagle Rock).

• Tibet Nepal House part shrine, this restaurant is run by Himalayan trekking guide Karma Tenzing Bhotia. It plays host to the Dalai Lama and his retinue whenever they're in town.
• McDharma's: (OreansHealthExpress.com) If you're in a more compassionate mood, looking for something healthier junk but in no mood to sit down, drive through. Orean's is the world's first fully vegetarian fast-food restaurant.
• Buddhist-friendly Hindu mandirs featuring Buddhist-fusion yoga at Pasadena Hindu Temple and Ma Durga Temple; regular Shri Shri Ravi Shankar "Art of Living" classes in Pasadena (us.artofliving.org); and three local Self Realization Fellowship meditation sanctuaries (Pasadena, Glendale, and the organization's Mother Center in Mt. Washington); the Vedanta Center of Southern California's Vivekananda House.
• Zen Buddhist sitting group at All Saints Episcopalian Church, a nationally-acclaimed liberal and activist Christian voice.
• Engaged Buddhists not wanting to trek over to Hollywood, where a new Thich Nhat Hanh sitting group has formed, might find like minded folks among Pasadena's Pagans (TempleOfTheGoddess.org) or Native American Shamans (TheWildRose.net)

Pasadena also has natural waterfalls (e.g., Eaton Falls), mountain forests (San Gabriel mountains), and more urban angst than Santa Monica. Surrounding towns are also home to many similar centers and services:

• Arcadia: Tibetan Buddhist Dharma Monastery
• Hacienda Heights: An eight acre Buddhist Temple complex
• Rosemead: (Buddhist) University of the West
• The Huntington's permanent Japanese Zen exhibit
• Theosophical International Headquarters (theosociety.org)
• Anthrosophical Society (Anthroposophy-socal.com)
• Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden
• Falun Gong Pasadena (falundafa.org)
• Enlightenment News (Wisdom Portal)
• Rinpoche visits Pasadena
• Buddhists beware: Pope elevates 5 new saints, 1 in Hawaii