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However, there are limitations in distinguishing the lineage and origins of these temples by their countries alone, so we need to mix in elements of their traditions. In the case of Tibetan Buddhism, for example, some temples in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition are from India, some are from Vietnam, and most of them can be traced back to mainland China. Therefore, the classification of Tibetan Buddhism is more comprehensive to define, while more detailed factors may need to be investigated further to complete a full picture. In another case, for example, temples from some other countries, such as Australia, Vietnam, etc., actually came originally from the Chinese Mahayana tradition, such as the Amida Society (Jingzong xuehui 淨宗學會) of Ven. Jing Kong 淨空, whose nationality was later changed to Australia. There are also temples founded by a monastic born in China before 1949. Later, the monastics moved to Southeast Asia where they founded a Buddhist organization. But if we adopt the categorization of the Chinese Mahayana tradition, we will merge too many temples and lose too much information. To avoid oversimplifying the discussion, their dual nature will be listed and considered separately.

There are also great differences within a single country. For example, Vietnamese temples might be identified as northern Vietnamese, southern Vietnamese, or Sino-Vietnamese. So, this part requires further refinement in our follow-up work.

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What's more, there are more difficulties and ambiguities with the data when tracing the identity of legal persons or founders of the temples. It may happen that a temple has two or more founders, or that a spiritual leader exists above the founders. In addition, many temples in North America have a system that mimics modern enterprises and also have their own board of directors, in which case they have a plurality of identities and countries of board members.  

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Another important phenomenon is the shifting of ownership. As mentioned above, the earliest ethnic Chinese inhabitants in the San Gabriel Valley after 1965 were Taiwanese. Many of the earlier Taiwanese migrants, including those who are monastics, have reached retirement age. This development is contrasted by the more recent rise of migration from the PRC. If it is a residential-sized vihara with one person living in it, it is likely to happen that the venerable will sell the temple property when he or she reaches retirement age, and so on. As a result, we can see a drastic change in the demographics of temple visitors and even temple ownership. Further research is needed to deal with these questions. 

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4.3    Architecture

In terms of architecture, we assessed five main styles:

(1) Buildings built in a “traditional” Asian Buddhist temple style; 
(2) residential homes turned into temples that possessed recognizable visible markers such as signs, lanterns, and statues; 
(3) churches turned into temples that possessed recognizable visible markers such as signs, lanterns, and statues; 
(4) commercial buildings turned into temples that possessed recognizable visible markers such as signs, lanterns, and statues; and
(5) residential buildings without any such markers. In the future, it could be assessed how architectural style relates to local zoning residential (e.g., residential or commercial) in the different cities.  

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It's worth noting that if it's a commercial building, the primary way to identify it is by its exterior appearance, looking for any obvious signage. However, most Buddhist temples, even if located within a commercial building, have likely undergone interior renovations. This, however, is outside the scope of our research. While the majority are Buddhist temples, one was categorized separately as a "temple" because it is not Buddhist.

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