About Unified Buddhist Church

The Most Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh (Thây), our spiritual teacher, founded the Unified Buddhist Church (Eglise Bouddhique Unifieé) in France in 1969, during the Vietnam war. Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, a poet, a scholar, and a peace activist. His life long efforts to generate peace and reconciliation moved Martin Luther King, Jr. to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. He founded the Van Hanh Buddhist University in Saigon and the School for Youths of Social Services in Vietnam. When not travelling the world to teach “The Art of Mindful Living”, he teaches, writes, and gardens in Plum Village, France, a Buddhist monastery for monks and nuns and a mindfulness practice center for lay people.

The Unified Buddhist Church established Sweet Potatoes Community in 1975, Plum Village in 1982, the Dharma Cloud Temple and the Dharma Nectar Temple in 1988, and the Adornment of Loving Kindness Temple in 1995. Thich Nhat Hanh’s sangha (community of practice) in France is usually referred to as the Plum Village Sangha. During the course of the year, Plum Village welcomes thousands of retreatants from all over the world. Due to its rapid expansion in recent years, the community now comprises seven hamlets: Upper Hamlet, Middle Hamlet, West Hamlet and Lower Hamlet, New Hamlet, Gatehouse New Hamlet and Hillside New Hamlet. The Unified Buddhist Church also has a mindfulness practice center called Intersein in Bavaria, Germany. A sangha of about 150 monks, nuns and resident lay-practitioners live permanently in Plum Village.

Since 1994, we have been exploring opportunities to establish our presence in the United States of America. In 1997, a generous donor offered us a 120-acre property in Woodstock, Vermont. This enabled us to set up the Maple Forest Monastery. In 1998, with the help of the same donor, we were able to acquire a 120-acre property in Hartland-Four-Corners,Vermont to set up the Green Mountain Dharma Center nunnery. We also set up the Mindfulness Practice Center (MPC) of Queechee, Vermont, the first center of its kind in the United States. A sangha of monks and nuns lives and practices in our monastery and nunnery and a team of lay practitioners practice in and take care of our MPC in Vermont. In May 2000, we established Deer Park Monastery, our West Coast Center, in Escondido, San Diego County, California. You are welcome to visit us in France as well as in Vermont and California.

The Unified Buddhist Church Inc. (UBC), a non-profit corporation, was founded in 1998 to officially represent Thich Nhat Hanh and his Sangha in the United States of America. It is a sister organization of Unified Buddhist Church (Eglise Bouddhique Unifieé) founded in France. The UBC in America is represented by Sr. Annabel, Abbess of the Green Mountain Dharma Center. The Green Mountain Dharma Center acts as the headquarters of the Unified Buddhist Church in the U.S.

The official name and address of the Unified Buddhist Church, Inc. is:

Unified Buddhist Church, Inc.
C/O Green Mountain Dharma Center
Ayers Lane, P.O. Box 182
Hartland-Four-Corners, Vermont 05049, USA
Tel: (802) 436-1103, Fax: (802) 436-1101
Internet: http://www.plumvillage.org
E-mail: MF-Office@plumvillage.org
Unified Buddhist Church, Inc. is qualified by the IRS as a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization.