There are two Hindu temples in New York. The Geeta temple Ashram is a traditional orange and white marble North Indian building, which was built in 1972. It reflects the wealth of the first wave immigrants. The Hindu temple society has been criticized of putting only wealthy people on Geeta's board of trustees. The Divya Dham temple was partly built as a response to these class tensions, as the new less affluent immigrants began to establish their own sacred spaces. Divya Dham is located in former electronics factory and its main deity (god): Vaisno Devi, "appeals to people of all castes and walks of life" back in India. We were interested in seeing whether we could discover a trace of similar class tensions within Hindu Mandir.
However, our main focus was on investigating the issues of identity and belonging, which Hindu Mandir may have to offer for its members. There were four members in our research group. Our project concentrated on the use of space in the Hindu Mandir and we looked at what does the space mean to the people who use it. We observed the form of rituals and symbolism, which are performed in the Hindu Mandir. We were curious about the consequences of having people with various cultural backgrounds using the same worshipping space. Would people find this problematic? Is the feeling or experience of worshipping different in Glasgow than in India? Is Hindu Mandir able to represent India and create a sense of home among the worshippers? We were curious whether people were satisfied with the appearance of the temple and whether the experience of worship would be different if the building was different? We also looked at power relations in terms of gender differences and differences between older and younger people. During the fieldwork process I sometimes felt like a child who is learning to speak. When children learn a language they first enter the stage of asking endless amount of "what is that?" questions. In this way children obtain vocabulary, which then allows children to proceed to the "why?" stage.
Children connect the underlying patterns of meanings in their environment through responding to any sentence with another "but why?" question, and in this way children learn to understand their own culture.
Similarly I first obtained the knowledge about the names of objects and rituals in the new environment through "what?" questions, after which I was ready to 'hunt' people with my exhaustive lists of "why?" questions, in order to reveal meaning in the environment. The experience of doing fieldwork was very inspiring; as doing research was not anymore just about reading theoretical literature, but all the theory became alive once you start looking for patterns in the observed environment
Every year, the largest Ganesh idol is installed at Khairatabad in Hyderabad, which is more than 30 ft tall.The Ganapati Mahotsav or the Grand Festival of Ganesha is the principle festival in Bombay, the financial capital of India. In Bombay factories commission the largest of the 6000 or so Ganeshas collectively. Each of these idols can be upto 10 meters in height and are paraded on lorries decorated with multi-colored lights. At the other end of the scale, little Ganeshas are placed in nukkads or street corners and in homes, and pujas are performed daily. The festival was started by Shivaji , the great Maratha ruler, to promote culture and a feeling of nationalism amongst his subjects who were fighting against the Mughals.
On the 4th day of the bright half of Bhadrapad, the great festival of Ganesh or Ganpati is celebrated. This festival marked the birthday of Lord Ganesh. Ganpati is one of the most popular deities. Both Shaivites and Vaishnavites worship him. Even Buddhists and Jains have respect for Ganpati. He is considered to be an avatar of both Shiva and Vishnu.
On the occasion of the Ganapati festival, a large number of idols are made of clay or metal in all possible sizes sometimes even up to twenty feet. People buy them and install them in their houses and worship the idol for one to ten days, after which the idol are taken out ceremoniously, carried in a procession through the streets of the town (especially in Maharashtra) and immersed into the river, sea or well. The sea front at Mumbai, packed with people, is a spectacular sight.
To appreciate this occasion, one must go to Mumbai where preparations begin months in advance. Images of Ganesha are installed within homes as well as in places of assembly. Elaborate arrangements are made for lighting and decoration and Ganesha is fervently worshipped for about 7-10 days.
On the day of the Chaturthi, the last of the days dedicated to the elephant-headed god, thousands of processions converge on the beaches of Mumbai to immerse the holy idols in the sea. This immersion is accompanied by drumbeats, devotional songs and dancing.
Ganpati is the god of learning. He is addressed as the "Remover of Obstacles" ("Vignaharta"). His devotees believe that no enterprise will succeed unless he is invoked. The picture of Ganpati is often found on the doors of houses and printed on wedding cards. On the occasion of the Ganpati festival a large number of images are made of all possible sizes, and people buy them to keep in their houses as a divine guest for one and a half, five, seven, or ten days, after which the image is taken out ceremoniously and thrown into the river, sea or well for immersion or "visarjan". After his death the festival was celebrated but on a smaller scale. In 1894 when the British banned public assemblies Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak who felt that this was way of spreading the freedom message through a legitimate religious festival revived the festival.
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