On Saturday, Philadelphia Cambodians observed Ancestors Day, the reunion of ancestral spirits with the living. It’s the holiest day of the year in Cambodian Buddhism, and, for the first time in South Philly, it was celebrated at a Buddhist temple that looks like a Buddhist temple. Under a canopy outside the newly renovated Preah Buddha Rangsey Temple at Sixth and Ritner, six monks reciting chants to congregants looked like they could just as easily have been in Phnom Penh as 10 blocks from Cosmi’s Deli.
The temple is just three years old, as is the one directly across the street. Both serve the growing Cambodian population in Philly, says Muni Rath, chief monk of the congregation. Rath got a dose of culture shock while navigating Philly’s labyrinthine codes and regulations — nearly nonexistent in Cambodia — to get the place up and running back in 2006. Compared to Cambodia, costs were staggering. “It took $10,000 just for the [schematic],” he says. “For $10,000 in Cambodia, you could build two temples.”