The Hindu Community in Kenya today gathered at the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Nairobi to perform prayer rituals and celebrate 24 years of the temple.
The respected devotees prayed for prosperity, peace, love to prevail, also for political stability and rains across the country.
The temple is not only a home for spirituality but fosters personal growth, imparts values of honesty, team work, and righteous living.
The spiritual assemblies take place every Saturday for the youth and Sundays for adults.
The Temple has a holy congregation of over 1200 devotees gather for prayers with 18 priests stationed in Africa out of whom 4 reside in Nairobi.
Although there were temples in Africa before this, it is the first traditional stone and marble Hindu temple to be constructed on the African continent and was built by BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, a Hindu denomination within the Swaminarayan Sampradaya.
The Temple was opened on 29 August 1999 by Pramukh Swami Maharaj, the 5th spiritual leader of BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha.
It was designed according to the ancient Hindu shilpa shastras and is made from 350 tonnes of yellow sandstone from Jesalmer mined from Rajasthan, India.
According to Wikipedia, the stone was mined and transported to Pindwada, some 400 km to Jesalmer where it was hand-carved by 150 craftsmen.
Following two years of carving work, the pieces were shipped to Mombasa, Kenya and assembled in Nairobi like a giant three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle.
The interior of the Temple is unique in that it is made from intricately carved wood.
Wikipedia also says although most traditional Hindu temples have stone interiors but this BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir uses indigenous timber from East Africa, such as camphor, mahogany, mvule, Mt. Elgon teak and meru oak
This was exported to India and carved by approximately 250 craftsmen.
The Mandir comes complete with shikhars (pinnacles), stambhas (pillars) and ghummats (domes).
A team from Kenya visited some of the famous temples and monuments in Rajasthan, Kerala and elsewhere in India before the temple design was finalised.
Photos by Samson Wire
