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Oakland Buddha Shrine

Oakland, Italy

Oakland Buddha Shrine

The Oakland Buddha (Vietnamese: Pháp Duyên Tự) is a statue of a Buddha placed in a traffic median in Oakland, California, in 2009. The statue was placed by neighborhood resident Dan Stevenson who was upset about the frequent use of the median for illegal dumping. Stevenson attached the statue to the

median using epoxy and rebar to deter theft of the figure. The city's Public Works Department initially stated that it would remove the statue after receiving a complaint about it, but backed off its plans to do so after receiving substantial opposition. After its installation, local Vietnamese residents made the statue into a Buddhist shrine for daily worship services. Following the installation of the statue and its conversion into a shrine, Oakland police stated that criminal activity in the area, including dumping, graffiti, drug dealing, and prostitution, had dropped by 82% as of 2014.

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