Hindu Temple

A funny thing happened to us on our way to purchase a wireless router on Saturday. After checking the ads, we decided to head out to Fry's Electronics. Living in the middle of the city is accessible to many cultural opportunities, but we discovered that a trip to Fry's means driving way out of the city to a location where they can build their monster stores on much more affordable land. So we consulted our area maps and headed northeast to Duluth, Georgia.


We soon realized that on the way back we could swing through Lilburn, Georgia, to see the new Hindu Temple in this eastern suburb of Atlanta. We'd been reading about the Temple since it opened about a month ago.


The gleaming white temple, reminiscent of the Taj Mahal, is one of the largest of its kind in the world. It's constructed out of Turkish limestone, Italian marble and Indian pink sandstone. No steel or metal was used in the Temple. Even the HVAC ducts are made out of stone. Each piece of stone, which was hand-carved and imported from India, was numbered, divided into sections and eventually set in place. The entire structure was fit together like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Thousands of volunteers worked on the project and they were still working on it as we toured the grounds.


Walking through the interior was serene and peaceful. The walls, columns, doors, windows and ceilings are all intricately carved. Unfortunately no cameras were permitted inside. The detail was amazing. All guests must remove their shoes before entering. Since we were in shorts, I was provided with a long skirt and Michael was provided with long pants to wear into the temple. I also had to cover my shoulders with a jacket. They request complete silence from all guests while in the building, which just added to the visual sensory experience. There was no furniture in the rooms we toured. Just ornately carved columns and many alcoves to divide the space.



The outside of the Temple is a work in progress, with a huge reflection pond. The landscaping has not yet been installed. Georgia is in the midst of one of the worst droughts in history. We're currently 16" below normal for the year. Last week they ordered that all outdoor watering and car washing in the northern part of the state is prohibited. It will be interesting to see how the Temple will handle installing new landscaping under these harsh circumstances.



Our visit to the Temple was mesmerizing and we're looking forward to attending one of their many festivals planned in the months ahead. We're especially looking forward to the vegetarian food!

And by the way, our new wireless router works great. Michael didn't even need to bother our computer guru, Al, to get it hooked up. The timing was perfect, because last night we were following the exciting Padres vs. Rockies wild card playoff game on the computer since we don't have cable TV. At 10:00 p.m. Eastern time the game was tied and headed into extra innings. So we took the laptop to bed to keep up with the action. Sorry to say the Padres lost the game (on a questionable call) in the bottom of the 13th inning. But we're excited for the Colorado Rockies who they played their hearts out at the end of the season to clinch the playoff spot. My parents live in Fort Collins and my sister is in Denver and they are wildly excited.