A staccato of Mandarin erupts from above. The Rev. Lian Ning, executive director and spokesman for the temple, rustles down the stairs. He and several followers, all with shaved heads and silk uniforms, surround me in the foyer. A large picture of the temple grand master, Sheng-Yen Lu, looms overhead. Lian Ning is irate that the young monk with the mop let me into the dorm.
Bad karma permeates the air.
Lian Ning marches out of the house and orders me to the temple. I chase him down the empty street and up the temple stairs. An impressive photo of Gov. Gary Locke hangs on the temple's eastern wall. For several months, Lian Ning has refused to answer phone inquiries about Gov. Locke's visits to the temple during the frenzied, cash-grabbing weeks before the 1996 gubernatorial primary. The cash was returned by the Locke campaign under questionable circumstances.