The Digital Capture of Light: Temple Tales - 5: An arcitectural marvel in Houston

After a brief break from posting, I'm back with another post in the series "Temple Tales". This time, the temple is one built in the classic North Indian Shikhara style, but in the USA. The temple featured in this issue is the BAPS Swaminarayan temple in Houston, Texas. From their website,

" The BAPS Shree Swaminarayan Mandir in Houston is the first traditional Hindu Mandir of stone and marble to be constructed in the United States. Created entirely according to ancient Hindu architectural manuscripts known as the Shilpa-Shastras and meeting all the modern regulations of today, it was constructed in a mere 16 months starting from the day its first stone was laid. Limestone from Turkey and marble from Italy was shipped to India where it was hand-carved. More than 33,000 carved pieces were shipped from India to Houston to build such a beautiful Mandir. The Mandir opened to devotees, well-wishers, and visitors after the Pran Pratishtha ceremony performed by His Divine Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj on July 25, 2004. "

It is indeed a very beautiful Mandir, that showcases the intricacies of the North Indian style architecture. In a short amount of time since its completion, it has shot up the list of places to visit in Houston in a number of tourist guides!

Here are a few pictures from the Mandir. Currently, there is a lot of renovation work going on in the temple and hence you'll notice a lot of scaffolding in the images. Someday down the line, I will post more pictures once the scaffoldings have been removed and the renovations have been completed.