Pittsburgh _Patrika_Jan-2018

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The Pittsburgh Patrika, Vol, 23, No. 2, January 2018 ized” structures. Cracks in plaster and between brick layers, snow freezing into sheets of ice and inadequate drainage on flat roofs lead to leaks and structural damage. In many temples, these are recurring themes that drain the temple’s time, energy and resources. Why do temple managements resist adapting temple structures’ basic design to the local weather patterns? The urge to find The famous Guruvayoor Krishna Temple, Kerala costly engineering solutions to retain the Indianized façades with “new & improved” building material is irresistible. But Mother Nature always wins if we do not learn to respect Her ways and adapt ourselves to Her patterns. It is time to look at this with some Vedantic detachment. Let us look at our personal lives as immigrants here. We take great pride in our — and our children’s — accomplishments in education and careers. Good. But also look at how we individually adapted our personal lives along the way — in our food habits; in worship, prayers, observing festivals in our homes; in walking away from proscribed taboos; on divorce and remarriage; in the choices our children make in their life partners. In all these, we have crossed every line that was a Lakshman Rekha or taboo just forty years ago. We have seamlessly adapted our personal lives in so many ways to fit into the ever-changing lifestyles and resources around us. So why do we resist the common-sense-based need to adapt the temple structures to the entirely predictable local and regional weather patterns? After all, Sthapatis, the traditional Hindu temple architects in India, have understood these local realities through the centuries. That is how and that is why many temples in India have survived for several hundreds of years on very low maintenance, compared to temples built in North America in the last 50 years. 24
The Pittsburgh Patrika, Vol, 23, No. 2, January 2018 Besides, there is NO one Indian Model in temple designs. Consider this: In Kerala and Coastal Karnataka where annual monsoon rainfalls are over 70 to 80 inches, even famous temples rarely have Gopurams/Shikhars we see in other regions. Shrines and exteriors in these temples have simple, sleek, sloping roofs with baked tiles or copper sheets so that minutes after the rainfall, not a drop of water stays on the roof. See the pictures in this article. Further, every The Shiva Temple, Vaikom,, Kerala temple in India is built with materials locally available in abundance — like soapstone, sandstones, granites, laterite, and hardwoods such as teak. managements need to develop guidelines and give them to Temple architects to come up with low-maintenance, yet elegant structures for the sanctums for the deities and the exterior. Maybe we need to “Indian- Americanize” the temples’ exteriors and incorporate architectural features taking into account the regional weather patterns, similar to how we have “Americanized” our Indianness here. Compromises are inevitable. Only when the temple managements do this, can They focus on the real purpose for building temples — namely, educating our children, organically enlivening the core of the cultural features of our faith (like music and dance), organizing classes on Yoga & Mediation, and preserving o u r o p e n - a r c h i t e c t u r e philosophical traditions. Remember, temples in India undertake bigscale renovations and Mookambika Temple, Kollur, Karnataka Kumbhabhishekam only once every twelve years. This implies that after such renovations, temples will have no recurring maintenance-related chronic headaches for another twelve years. • 25
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Pittsburgh _Patrika_Jan-2018

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