Pittsburgh _Patrika_Jan-2018

The Pittsburgh Patrika, Vol, 23, No. 2, January 2018
In Temple Architecture, Form Needs to
Follow Function, but Also Weather Patterns
By Kollengode S Venkataraman
With over three million Indians in North America and an overwhelming
proportion of them being Hindu, temples are springing up everywhere.
With so many temples now in North America, it may be time to reassess
how we need to incorporate features suitable to the regional weather patterns
in North America.
Hindu temples in North America are structured
Organizationally, after American churches with bylaws, membership eligibility,
membership dues,
elections, and governing
bodies (president,
chairman, secretary and
myriad committees).
In other measures,
many Hindu temples here
resemble Protestant denominations
we see on TV
in their perpetual appeal
Udupi Krishna Temple, Coastal Karnataka.
for money — tax deductible,
of course — for capital projects one after another. With these things
in place, disagreements and fights among members on dogma, rituals, and
other practices also are the norm in temples, as in churches here.
However, for cultural, sentimental, and nostalgic reasons, temple managements
want to keep the exterior of the temples “Indian” in architecture
and artwork. Temples spend enormous amount of time and money, first
on “Indianization” projects, and then to maintain these “Indianized” façades.
But as we have
seen time and again,
this does not always
go well, especially in
places in the Midwest
and Northeast and in
Canada with several
freeze-thaw cycles in
winter, freezing rains,
storms that pile 8” to
10” inches of snow on
the complex “Indian-
Manajunatha Temple, Dharmasthala, Karnataka.
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