அரிஜோனாவில் தென்னிந்திய முறைப்படி கட்டப்படும் மகாகணபதி கோவில்

அரிஜோனாவில் தென்னிந்திய முறைப்படி கட்டப்படும் மகாகணபதி கோவில் எழுகிறது..

அனைவரும் வருக,
விக்கினேஸ்வரனின் அருள் பெறுக!

South Indian Hindu temple near Maricopa to be 'true sanctuary'
Lynh Bui
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 24, 2007 07:00 PM

For more than five years, South Indian Hindus living in Arizona have been worshipping out of a doublewide trailer on 15 acres west of Maricopa. Come next September, they'll have a new home - a $1.5 million temple with an 8,000 square-foot hall housing shrines to deities.

The Mahan Ganapati Temple of Arizona is meaningful to the Hindu community that lives thousands of miles from its birthplace of India, said Mouli Subramanian, the vice president of fundraising and marketing chair for the temple. Ensuring the temple follows the spiritual and architectural traditions of South Indian Hindus will give devotees a place to feel closer to their culture.

"Every person can get satisfaction in praying to the Supreme Being in a place where he was taken during his childhood to worship," Subramanian said. "He feels closer to home and doesn't feel this place as a foreign country."







The new temple will pay homage to South Indian architectural styles, down to the height of the towers and carvings on concrete pillars.

The first phase of the project includes construction of the building, which will include four to six towers, the tallest reaching 55 feet. For the second phase, artisans from India are expected to work and live in Arizona for two to three years as they hand-carve and paint the concrete temple. Accenting, carving and adding metal work to the temple is estimated to cost an additional $400,000.

The carvings on the temple will show stories and values that are important to Hindu culture, such as the birth of a particular god or the importance of marital life.

"It is just a way of teaching by way of these carvings," Subramanian said. "It's a beautiful thing to see."

The temple will have more space to accommodate the large number of Hindus who are members of Mahan Ganapati Temple of Arizona, said Aravind Thayaparan, president of construction of the temple.

He said people from Goodyear, Anthem, Tucson and all over the Valley travel to the temple in unincorporated Pinal County to worship. On the weekends, the doublewide trailer sees about 50 to 60 people. But on special occasions and holidays, 1,500 to 1,600 could pass through.

The new temple will have an herb garden, a library and a place for priests to live.

"The Indians try to honor what their ancestors have done and realize the value of what our ancestors tried to build in the form of a temple," Subramanian said. "This will be a true sanctuary."