History of the Sri Venkateswara Temple in New Jersey Term Paper

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Sri Venkateswara Temple (NJ)

The issue of religion and tolerance, like racism, has always been a contentious one in the United States. This is particularly true of the non-Western, non-mainstream religions, such as Hinduism and other Indian religious directions. Part of the reason for this is that Hindu immigration to the country began only in small amounts, while other immigrants deluged U.S. borders (Wikipedia, 2006). This resulted in a fair degree of distrust and misconception towards Hindu adherents. Nevertheless, when the Immigration and Nationality Services (INS) Act was passed in 1965, the Hindu population began to increase in number, enjoyed greater equality, and also attracted scholarly attention. From the Hindu point-of-view, the concern is to remain attached to traditional and religious values while living in and integrating with a Western society (Prentiss, 2006). This, together with their fairly new status of legally validated equality, has resulted in an increasing amount of Hindu temples in the United States, each with a unique character and focus within the religion. An example of these is the Sri Venkateswara Temple in Bridgewater, New Jersey.

The Sri Venkateswara Temple is also known as the Balaji Mandir and functions as both a Hindu Temple and a Cultural Society serving the Hindu people in the area (Linderman, 2002). There arose a need for such a temple in the Bridgewater area during the 1980s. One reason is that this period saw a significant increase in the Hindu Indian population in the area. In addition to the fact that this community experienced the need for worship services and cultural connections, was also the fact that many of these people were employed by the professional sector. They therefore had significant funds to contribute toward a project of establishing a worship community and building a temple. As mentioned above, the parental concern for retaining their children's awareness of their cultural roots also played a role in the need for establishing a temple. The first step towards attaining this goal was to buy land on which a temple could be built.

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After a group of Telugu-speaking Hindus organized and incorporated the Hindu Temple and Cultural Society (HTCS) in September 1989, they found a nearly three-acre piece of unused church property in Bridgewater. After a fundraising event and loans from church members, the board of the HTCS was able to buy the land for $950,000 on January 29,1992 (Prentiss, 2006). The existing building was renovated, inaugurated in February of the same year, and opened to the public in March.

The brick structure renovated during this time was modest in both size and appearance. While it served its purpose as a place of worship and cultural activities, it was always seen as a temporary structure to be used only until funds could be raised for a traditional, permanent temple. As such, the decorations and images within the "temple" reflected its temporary status. Movable metal (utsava) images were used, for example, rather than the permanent ones required for a traditional temple, and posters of deities were displayed in the large gathering hall of the building (Linderman, 2002).

The worship and activities in the building however took the established traditional style during this time. For this purpose, priests were brought from India in order to ensure that all traditions of worship are followed exactly and correctly, and to retain purity in these practices. Specifically for this temple, priests are from south India, and the decorations, festival calendar, cultural activities, and other elements in the temple adhere to the south Indian tradition of Hinduism (Linderman, 2006). The permanent temple that was built later is also south Indian in both appearance and style of worship, because the founders and most worshipers are from this tradition. The temple is however established not to serve only Hindu people from south India, but all Hindus living in the region of Bridgewater, New Jersey. In order to serve all worshipers, priests speak not only the Indian languages from south India,….....

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