Temple

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Temple

Our word temple comes from the Latin templum, meaning any space demarcated as sacred—even a part of the sky. A temple is the place for housing a divine image or idea; it is a place where the devotee has access to the divine through worship and ritual. Indian temples serve as an intersection of a central vertical axis to the Divine and a horizontal axis for contemplation and circumambulation of that transcendent center. A temple can be grand and palatial, constructed in marble and inlaid with gold and precious stones; it can be a hut, a simple enclosure for a tree or a pillar or a stone. Temples are found in cities and villages, caves and mountains, deserts and islands.

In America temples are not only the sacred buildings of Jews and Mormons; they are also the sacred structures of Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs. The first encounter with Asian traditions on this continent was the meeting of the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893. Indian metaphysical and aesthetic ideals did not begin to infiltrate meaningfully, however, until 1965, when the Asian Exclusion Act of 1917 was repealed. With noticeable immigration over the last three decades of the twentieth century, the architectural pattern of America is becoming a beautiful mosaic, with Hindu and Jain mandirs, Buddhist monasteries, and Sikh gurdwaras. These physical structures embody the spiritual Weltanschauung of their respective traditions. Fusing traditional and modern styles, many temples are built anew; many others are converted from former churches and schools.

The archetype for the Hindu temple is the human body, with the two sides of the temple representing the hands, and the top of the temple, the head. The architecture closely follows the ancient temple manuals. One of the earliest and grandest Hindu temples in North America is the Sri Venkateshwara Temple in Pittsburgh, established in 1976. Modeled on the seventh-century Tirupathi shrine in South India, it has a fifty-foot towered gateway. The temple is dedicated to Sri Venkatesvara, an incarnation of Vishnu, the preserver god. He is flanked on either side by the goddesses Padmavati and ??d?l. To Hindus the single formless reality (Brahman) reveals itself in millions of incarnations, male and female. Hindus visit their temples to see (darshan) and worship (p?j?) their manifested deity. They perform the ritual of ?rat?, in which a fivefold lamp and incense are lit and encircled around the deity—accompanied by chanting of hymns, ringing of bells, and beating of drums. Hindu worship is a mode of remembering the cosmogonic process, and ?rat? represents the union of the elements of fire, water, sound, smell, and ether. While in India each temple has a sanctum sanctorum (garbhagriya, literally, "womb chamber") for a particular deity, the temples in the West tend to be more inclusive to accommodate the diverse Hindu communities. (For instance, the Sri Shiva Vishnu Temple in Maryland is dedicated to both Shiva and Vishnu.)

The general structure of the Jain temple is similar to the Hindu temple. The distinctive feature is the imagery of the T?rtha?karas, "those who have made the crossing" from the life of birth and death to ultimate freedom. The temples venerate the twenty-four T?rtha?karas and also display auspicious and symbolic diagrams, like the wheel of the Jain law. In India the magnificent Jain temples are far from urban centers—out in the country or at high tops of mountains such as Abu (one of the Seven Wonders of India), Taranga, Palitana, and Girnar—but in the West they are established in the heart of cities. Outside of India, Jain temples also unite the different sects by combining images of the "white-clad" Svet?mbaras and the "sky-clad" Digambaras.

Buddhist temples in America are an outgrowth of the international spread of Indian, Sri Lankan, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Cambodian, Vietnamese and other schools of both Therav?da and Mah?y?na Buddhism. The patterns reveal the influence of their ethnic cultures, but the enlightened Buddha, sitting serenely in the lotus posture, is the paradigmatic image shared by all of them. While statues and paintings show him directly, the Buddha is also presented abstractly in mandalas and symbolically by the stupa. The Indian ideal of the temple as the center of the universe has given birth to some of the most magnificent architectural displays. With the main shrine at the center, the temple complex is oriented to the cardinal directions, and sumptuous gateways, bridges, and balustrades express the link between the sacred and the secular world.

A Sikh temple is called a gurdwara, literally, a door (dwara) to ultimate enlightenment (guru). There are no images or sculptures incarnating a deity in any way, and the Gur? Granth, the Sikh scripture, is set at the very center of the gurdwara. The metaphysical poetry in sensuous imagery is the sole visual and aural icon for the Sikhs. Just as the recitation of the intangible verses launches the worshiper to intuit the Unintuitable One, the Indo-Persian domes, minarets, and the black and white marble squares on the floor lead the eye toward infinity. Most traditional gurdwaras are associated with the lives of the ten Sikh gurus (from Guru N?nak to Guru Gobind Singh; 1469–1708). They are usually white in color and have large square halls and courtyards that provide an immediate feeling of expansiveness. A gurdwara is identified by the saffron triangular flag that flies over it. The flag is emblazoned with the kh?ls? emblem—a double-edged sword set in a circle, surrounded by two semicircular swords. A gurdwara has four doors, indicating welcome to people of all four castes. Harimandir, the Golden Temple at Amritsar in India, is the most sacred, but the biggest Sikh shrine is in Yuba City, California. There are more than 115 gurdwaras in America, 35 in California alone (the first was built in Stockton in 1909).

Shoes are removed in all Indian temples. No meat or alcohol is partaken in any of the sacred premises. As a sign of humility, the congregations seat themselves on the floor. In Sikh gurdwaras men and women have their hair covered out of respect for their holy book. Along with worship and religious discourses, all Indian temples in the West serve as a hub for social and cultural events. Language classes are taught, youth activities are held, and camps for young children are organized. Marriages are performed in the respective temples, and their rites are closely followed: a Hindu couple takes seven steps around Agni, the sacred fire; a Sikh couple takes four circles around the Guru Granth, the sacred book. During important celebrations, elaborate processions issuing forth from and culminating in the various temples are becoming a familiar sight in American metropolitan centers. While Hindus carry images of the goddess through the streets of American cities during Durg? P?j?, the Sikhs carry the Gur? Granth during Baisakhi. Such festivities enable the followers to share in their heritage, keep the foundations of the community strong, and create a multicultural and vibrant America. All the religions of India open their temples to others, and by entering into that sacred space we experience our own essential humanity.