02-26-2008, 08:29 AM
The Hinduization Of America : there is an ongoing process of Hinduizing Sacred Space
http://www.indolink.com/displayArtic...d=060305110343
USA, June 5, 2005: From Hindu temples in Juneau, Alaska, to
Tallahassee, Florida, and to Kauai, Hawaii, there is an ongoing
process of Hinduizing the American sacred space. Hindu Americans have
begun to cultivate the strains within their own religious tradition
that foster a sense of the sacred earth through myth, ritual,
ceremonies, and spirit power that more or less reflects Native
American or American Indian cultures, says Francis C. Assisi in this
lengthy article. Now, Hindu Americans are locating, establishing and
embellishing sacred spaces in America by commingling the waters of
the Ganga and the Kaveri with the Mississippi and Rio Grande, and by
invoking the holy Indian rivers into the local waters. In the past
twenty five years, the American landscape, with its rich abundance of
rivers, mountains, forests, animals, ancestral graves and relics, is
becoming sacred space to Indian Americans as it has been for American
Indians through the millennia. They have enhanced and spiritually
empowered America's sacred landscape with more than 1,500 places of
worship in North America.
Professor Vasudha Narayanan, an authority on diasporic Hinduism and
professor at the University of Florida's Department of Religion,
claims that Hindu rituals are part of the many ways in which the
local landscape is being transformed to be sacred liturgical space
for immigrant American Hindus. The point that Professor Narayan has
made is that Indians have made the land of the Americas ritually
sacred in at least four ways: composing songs and pious Sanskrit
prayers extolling the American state where the temples are located;
identifying America as a specific dvipa or island as noted in the
Hindu Puranas; physically consecrating the land with waters from
sacred Indian and American rivers; and literally recreating the
physical landscape of certain holy places in India, as in Pittsburgh
or Barsana Dam, Texas.
One way Hindus in America enhance the sacredness of their temples is
to try to either recognize and rediscover resemblances between
American physical landscape and distinctive sacred spots in India, or
to recreate that similarity. The earliest attempt was at the
Venkateswara Temple in Pittsburgh. Devotees voiced the similarity
between the sacred place in India where the rivers Ganga, Yamuna and
the underground Saraswati meet, and the confluence of three local
rivers. According to Prof Narayanan, some of the most sustained
attempts in recreating the landscape are in Barsana Dham, Texas, and
at the Iraivan Temple to Siva, in Kauai, Hawaii. Barsana Dham
resembles Barsana in Northern India, said to be the hometown of
Radha, the beloved of Lord Krishna. Here, all the important landmarks
of Krishna and Radha's homeland were recreated. At Iraivan Temple in
Hawaii, not only are the names reminiscent of India, but the similar
environment of tropical India meshes with the local Hawaiian land to
create a unique milieu.
The Pittsburgh temple, the Barsana Dham in Texas, and the Iraivan
Temple in Hawaii have become new pilgrimage destinations for millions
of Indians living in North America. Even visitors from India make it
a point to include these temples in their itinerary according to the
late Dr. Sambamurthy Sivachariyar, who was an important priest of a
large temple in Madras, India. He presided as chief priest for the
stone-laying ceremony of Iraivan Temple in 1995 and said, "I am too
old to go on pilgrimage to the holy sites in the Indian Himalayan
mountains, where, according to Hinduism, God Himself resides and
gives His grace to pilgrims. That was a life-long dream of mine. But
now that I have come to the most beautiful place in the world, Kauai,
to this sacred land, I feel my dream has been fulfilled. I have come
to the home of God." Interestingly, the ancient Hawaiians called the
temple site, which is at the foot of Mount Waialeale near the sacred
Wailua River, Pihanakalani, "where heaven touches earth." To read the
article in its entirety, click on "source" above.
__________________
Hare Krsna Hare Krsna
Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare
http://www.indolink.com/displayArtic...d=060305110343
USA, June 5, 2005: From Hindu temples in Juneau, Alaska, to
Tallahassee, Florida, and to Kauai, Hawaii, there is an ongoing
process of Hinduizing the American sacred space. Hindu Americans have
begun to cultivate the strains within their own religious tradition
that foster a sense of the sacred earth through myth, ritual,
ceremonies, and spirit power that more or less reflects Native
American or American Indian cultures, says Francis C. Assisi in this
lengthy article. Now, Hindu Americans are locating, establishing and
embellishing sacred spaces in America by commingling the waters of
the Ganga and the Kaveri with the Mississippi and Rio Grande, and by
invoking the holy Indian rivers into the local waters. In the past
twenty five years, the American landscape, with its rich abundance of
rivers, mountains, forests, animals, ancestral graves and relics, is
becoming sacred space to Indian Americans as it has been for American
Indians through the millennia. They have enhanced and spiritually
empowered America's sacred landscape with more than 1,500 places of
worship in North America.
Professor Vasudha Narayanan, an authority on diasporic Hinduism and
professor at the University of Florida's Department of Religion,
claims that Hindu rituals are part of the many ways in which the
local landscape is being transformed to be sacred liturgical space
for immigrant American Hindus. The point that Professor Narayan has
made is that Indians have made the land of the Americas ritually
sacred in at least four ways: composing songs and pious Sanskrit
prayers extolling the American state where the temples are located;
identifying America as a specific dvipa or island as noted in the
Hindu Puranas; physically consecrating the land with waters from
sacred Indian and American rivers; and literally recreating the
physical landscape of certain holy places in India, as in Pittsburgh
or Barsana Dam, Texas.
One way Hindus in America enhance the sacredness of their temples is
to try to either recognize and rediscover resemblances between
American physical landscape and distinctive sacred spots in India, or
to recreate that similarity. The earliest attempt was at the
Venkateswara Temple in Pittsburgh. Devotees voiced the similarity
between the sacred place in India where the rivers Ganga, Yamuna and
the underground Saraswati meet, and the confluence of three local
rivers. According to Prof Narayanan, some of the most sustained
attempts in recreating the landscape are in Barsana Dham, Texas, and
at the Iraivan Temple to Siva, in Kauai, Hawaii. Barsana Dham
resembles Barsana in Northern India, said to be the hometown of
Radha, the beloved of Lord Krishna. Here, all the important landmarks
of Krishna and Radha's homeland were recreated. At Iraivan Temple in
Hawaii, not only are the names reminiscent of India, but the similar
environment of tropical India meshes with the local Hawaiian land to
create a unique milieu.
The Pittsburgh temple, the Barsana Dham in Texas, and the Iraivan
Temple in Hawaii have become new pilgrimage destinations for millions
of Indians living in North America. Even visitors from India make it
a point to include these temples in their itinerary according to the
late Dr. Sambamurthy Sivachariyar, who was an important priest of a
large temple in Madras, India. He presided as chief priest for the
stone-laying ceremony of Iraivan Temple in 1995 and said, "I am too
old to go on pilgrimage to the holy sites in the Indian Himalayan
mountains, where, according to Hinduism, God Himself resides and
gives His grace to pilgrims. That was a life-long dream of mine. But
now that I have come to the most beautiful place in the world, Kauai,
to this sacred land, I feel my dream has been fulfilled. I have come
to the home of God." Interestingly, the ancient Hawaiians called the
temple site, which is at the foot of Mount Waialeale near the sacred
Wailua River, Pihanakalani, "where heaven touches earth." To read the
article in its entirety, click on "source" above.
__________________
Hare Krsna Hare Krsna
Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare