Welcome to Wat Thai El Paso
Your home for Theravada Buddhism for the El Paso region
Wat Thai El Paso is a small, open group of practicing Theravada buddhists. Led by the Phrakhru Vinaithorn Sawai (he likes to go by Sawai), we meet several times a week to practice breathing (Vipassana-type) meditation, talk or just to eat together. Members hail from the United States, Thailand, Taiwan, Mexico and India.
Theravada is the school of Buddhism that draws its scriptural inspiration from the Pali canon, which scholars generally agree contains the earliest surviving record of the Buddha's teachings. For many centuries, Theravada has been the predominant religion of Southeast Asia (Thailand, Myanmar/Burma, Cambodia, and Laos) and Sri Lanka. Today Theravada Buddhism has begun to take root in the El Paso/Juárez area.