“ Engaged Buddhism is the inspirational path which I try to follow in my life and teaching.”

Sister Than Chan Chan is the spiritual leader of the Sky Temple.
Sister Chan studied under the great Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, at his Temple in Plum Village, in France. His teachings will be central to the meditation and yoga sessions and retreats provided at the Sky Temple, along with walking meditations community gatherings, art and cultural events and multicultural celebrations. Sister Chan describes the Buddhist Temple as a place where three jewels exist: The Buddha (the founder, teacher), The Dharma (source of teachings), and the Sangha (students, learners, followers).
Thich Nhat Hanh is a poet, peace and climate activist, and prolific author of more than 100 books. In 1961 he went to America to study Comparative Religion at Princeton Theological Seminary, and the following year went on to teach and research Buddhism at Columbia University and later at the University of Sorbonne, Paris. He was constantly advocating throughout America and Europe for the end of the war in Vietnam, and led the Buddhist delegation to the Paris Peace Talks in 1969. Whilst living in the USA he became friends with Martin Luther King. In 1967 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize, calling him “an apostle of peace and non-violence” whose “ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity.”
Thich Nhat Hanh reached out to the world through his books, podcasts, recordings and art, to bring his teachings to every faith and sector of society from rural children to congressmen and bankers in the capitals of Europe and America. He called for specific steps to reverse the cycle of violence, war and global warming. Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings on “interbeing” (a term he coined in the 1980’s) have led the way in Buddhist deep ecology. Referencing ancient Buddhist texts, such as the Diamond Sutra, he explains Buddhist teaching of “no-self” in the light of ecology:
“we cannot separate human beings from the environment. The environment is in human beings and human beings are part of the environment… [Even] the distinction between living beings and non-living beings disappears after meditation.”
Thich Nhat Hanh passed away peacefully at his root temple, Tu Hieu, in Hue, Vietnam, on January 22, 2022 at the age of 95. .” (https://plumvillage.org).
The Sky Temple has received strong support from Buddhist communities throughout the world especially the United Vietnamese Buddhist Congregation in Australia and New Zealand. We thank everyone who has helped us on our temple building journey and hold their love and generosity with gratitude in our hearts.