Mililani Hongwanji Buddhist Temple
Mililani Hongwanji Bon Dance
Date: TBA 2024
Please be mindful of keiki, kupuna, and your surroundings while bon dancing! Dance with aloha! Especially during faster dances and in crowded areas.
Please click below for more info about our bon dance!
Schedule/Flyer
Please feel free to share on social media!
Things To Do
From a lantern parade to craft fair to bon dancing, there's so much to do!
About Bon Dance
Learn about the meaning and origins of the bon dance.
Bon Dance Practices
Please join us for our practices leading up to our bon dance.
About Our Temple
Our temple holds Buddhist services, hosts clubs, Adult Day Care, and so much more!
Join us!
Everyone is welcome to join our temple ohana!
Support Maui
Ways to help our all of our Maui friends & family recover from the devastating 2023 Maui wildfires. Parts of Lahaina Hongwanji Mission, which is a temple that is part of the same religious tradition and statewide organization as us, was destroyed by the wildfires.
Click the button below for both info on how to safely donate to general funds and specifically to Lahaina Hongwanji Mission.
Rev. Fujimoto on the Meaning & Origin of Bon Dance
"...Many of the songs that we dance to, immortalizes the achievements, perseverance, and hardships that our ancestors went through, as many songs are written and have dance movements portraying working in the plantation or in the coal mines, such as the beloved Tanko Bushi, Ashimiji Bushi, and, Fukushima Ondo.
So the end result really is, the dancing for joy is a result of those who have come before us, and acknowledges their contribution to our lives through their hardships, pain and suffering, and their perseverance and more importantly, the karmic conditions that led to their birth into this world.
So when you enter the ring, ask yourself that question once again, "Why do I dance during Bon Dance?" Remember those who have come before you and think about all the things they did in their lives so that we have the opportunity to live life today. Then and only then does it give meaning and purpose to the "Dance of Joy.""
Excerpts from the Dharma Connection
August 2023 Issue
Rev. David Fujimoto Resident Minister,
Mililani Hongwanji Buddhist Temple
Here's a common reading we recite at services & teach our keiki.
Golden Chain of Love
I am a link in Amida Buddha's Golden Chain of Love that stretches around the world. I must keep my link bright and strong.
I will try to be kind and gentle to every living thing and protect all who are weaker than myself.
I will try to think pure and beautiful thoughts, to say pure and beautiful words, and to do pure and beautiful deeds, knowing that on what I do now depends not only my happiness or unhappiness, but also that of others.
May every link in Amida's Golden Chain of Love be bright and strong, and may we all attain perfect peace.