- The Salt Lake Buddhist Temple, built in 1912, serves Japanese immigrants in Utah.
- Troy Watanabe highlights the temple’s role in preserving Japanese American history.
- The temple plans to remain a community hub, celebrating over 100 years in Salt Lake.
SALT LAKE CITY — A group of people, originally from far away, settled in the Salt Lake Valley and pooled their funds to build a temple. The Salt Lake Buddhist Temple now stands in downtown Salt Lake City, a monument to the hard-working individuals who first gathered there to worship.
The history aligns closely with that of the first members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who settled in the valley, and it also follows the history of the first Buddhists, who arrived in the early 1900s to serve immigrant Japanese workers who settled in Utah.
Historic temple design
Troy Watanabe, president of the Salt Lake Buddhist Temple, said the facility was designed to be a gathering place for Japanese immigrants across Utah…