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Connecticut's first Indian temple cheers Hindus

Coming from a country with temples on nearly every street corner, Indian Hindus, who migrated to the north-eastern US state of Connecticut in the 1970s, had to find other ways to practice their religion.

That's all changing now with the construction of Connecticut's first Hindu temple, designed by eight Indian architects -- a sign of the growing Hindu presence in the the United States.

Sitting atop a hill, the walls of Sri Satyanarayana temple at Middletown are a citrus yellow. Odd-shaped rooms, such as an octagonal entrance hall, jut out from the sides.

Inside, Hindus from across the state practice a religion dating back more than 5,000 years. They take part in cultural festivals, yoga classes and lessons in classical music and dance.

''I think it's good for our children,'' says Prema Manohar, who moved to the US 21 years ago, preparing the cultural hall for a weekend event. ''The temple is somewhere they can come together and learn about customs and festivals.''

When many of the immigrants arrived in the 1980s, several of them had set up rooms of worship in their homes where they would pray daily to photographs of their gods.

A handful of families took turns hosting religious ceremonies, recalls Manohar, but families found it hard to maintain their religious ties and pass on the customs to their children.

The nearly $ 2 million project, funded by donations, is slowly taking shape on 7.5 acres of hillside across the street from a community college.

The Connecticut Valley Hindu Temple Society bought the land in 1984, but it took five years to build a cultural hall and the priest's living quarters. This spring the society hopes to complete a 418 square-metre worship hall that will house granite statues of the deities.

A consecration ceremony planned for June has been postponed because of delays in getting the statues and workers from India, said society president Rao Singamsetti.

The society obtained visas for eight temple architects to come to Connecticut to build sanctums for the gods, based on carvings described in ancient scriptures.

Inside the sanctums will sit the statues, which are expected to arrive from India next month. The main statue of Satyanarayana is 1.8-metre tall and weighs about seven tonnes.

The temple will house three life-size statues of Hindu gods and seven smaller ones of gods from the religion's various sects. Since the Indian community is sparse in Connecticut, Singamsetti, an economics professor at the University of Hartford, says, ''It made sense to include the other deities.''

The Hindu population in Connecticut continues to grow, from about a dozen families in the 1970s to some 2,000 who are now on the temple's mailing list.

Across the country, the growing Hindu presence is marked by the construction of nearly 100 temples in recent years. At least 24 states now have a place of worship for Hindu followers.

The Middletown temple draws visitors from nearby states, including Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York, where there are many Hindu temples but with a different main deity.

Until the permanent statues arrive, worshippers pray to (one-metre-tall) copper statues set up in a room off the entrance way. As many as 100 families attend weekend services.

Ramachandra Bhattar, a fifth-generation priest from India, walks barefoot with a white cloth wrapped around his legs. He is wearing a white T-shirt, but says it is only because of the cold winters in the US.

''It's a service,'' he says, simply describing his duties. Bhattar, who has been in the United States for 11 years, spent 12 years training in India to become a priest.

Members say the temple will help solidify the Hindu community. But, more importantly, it is a means to pass on the culture to their children, many first-generation Americans.

UNI

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