Changemaker: Music instructor Benjamin Pongtep Cefkin helps preserve Colorado’s Thai American history

Key takeaways:

• Music affiliate faculty member Benjamin Pongtep Cefkin helped Denver’s Wat Buddhawararam earn Colorado historic-landmark status during the Thai Buddhist temple’s 50th anniversary year.
• Cefkin’s lifelong connection to the temple, as a student, musician, researcher and now music director, informed his contributions to the landmark nomination and his scholarship on Southeast Asian communities in Colorado.

For Benjamin Pongtep Cefkin, Ph.D., helping preserve an important piece of Colorado history was also deeply personal.

Cefkin, affiliate faculty member in Music at Metropolitan State University of Denver, grew up learning Thai dance, music and language at Denver’s Wat Buddhawararam. Decades later, his research and knowledge of the community helped the Thai Buddhist temple earn designation as a Colorado historic landmark in spring 2026, its 50th anniversary year.

A community with deep Colorado roots

Established in 1976, Wat Buddhawararam was among the first Thai Buddhist temples in the United States and has served as a religious, cultural and community center for generations of Thai Coloradans.

The temple took root when a small group of community members raised enough money to purchase a former Salvation Army Citadel in Denver’s Regis neighborhood, along with a large Buddha statue from Thailand.

As Southeast Asian communities in Colorado grew, so did the temple’s role. It became a gathering place and source of support for later immigrants and refugees arriving from Laos and Cambodia in the 1970s and ’80s, and Myanmar in the 2000s and 2010s.

Its Thai Language and Culture School has also helped generations of young people maintain connections to their language, traditions and cultural heritage.

Cefkin is one of them.

Born in Bangkok and raised primarily in Denver, Cefkin began studying Thai dance at the temple around age 3 and traditional Thai music a few years later. Today, he serves as its music director and performs with the Thai Harmony Traditional Arts Ensemble, which he founded with friends from the temple school.

Benjamin Pongtep Cefkin, Music affiliate faculty member, plays the chap in an ordination ceremony at the temple. Photo by Amanda Schwengel

His relationship with the temple also helped shape his academic path. Cefkin earned his doctorate in ethnomusicology, the study of music in its cultural context, from the University of Colorado Boulder.

Cefkin co-wrote the landmark nomination with Molly Rose Merkert of History Colorado, contributing research from his doctoral dissertation on Southeast Asian diasporic communities in Colorado.

An application for the temple to join the National Register of Historic Places has also been submitted.

Passing knowledge forward

That same desire to preserve and share knowledge informs Cefkin’s work at MSU Denver, where he teaches courses including Music, Race, and Power; Musics of Latin America; and other musicology courses.

“Dr. Benjamin Pongtep Cefkin is a passionate and dedicated teacher who brings his own curiosity to the classroom,” said Elizabeth McLean Macy, Ph.D., associate professor of Ethnomusicology. “Having grown up in Denver, he also carries knowledge of our community and embeds that in the classes he teaches.”

Benjamin Pongtep Cefkin helped Denver’s Wat Buddhawararam earn Colorado historic-landmark status during the Thai Buddhist temple’s 50th anniversary year. Photo by Amanda Schwengel

Cefkin sees parallels between the students he teaches and his own family. His mother, who grew up in a rural rice-farming family in Thailand, was the first in her family to attend college. At MSU Denver, he sees students balancing work, family and other responsibilities while pursuing education with a strong sense of purpose.

“I see myself in the students. I see my mom in the students,” he said. “It makes me feel close to them knowing that I have kind of the same stories in my family.”

Whether he is teaching at MSU Denver, performing Thai music or documenting the history of Wat Buddhawararam, Cefkin sees a common purpose.

“The students at MSU Denver remind me of my community,” he said. “Their stories are also my story and the story of my peers. It’s all about passing knowledge on for the next generation.”