| Hinduism is a 3000 years old religion. Millions of people | | | | worshipping different in Glasgow than in India? Is |
| follow Hinduism. However, there are no particular | | | | Hindu Mandir able to represent India and create a |
| rules in it. With the immigration wave in 1950s | | | | sense of home among the worshippers? We were |
| Hinduism became an international culture and | | | | curious whether people were satisfied with the |
| religion.There are two Hindu temples in New York. | | | | appearance of the temple and whether the |
| The Geeta temple Ashram is a traditional orange and | | | | experience of worship would be different if the |
| white marble North Indian building, which was built in | | | | building was different? We also looked at power |
| 1972. It reflects the wealth of the first wave | | | | relations in terms of gender differences and |
| immigrants. The Hindu temple society has been | | | | differences between older and younger people. |
| criticized of putting only wealthy people on Geeta's | | | | During the fieldwork process I sometimes felt like a |
| board of trustees. The Divya Dham temple was | | | | child who is learning to speak. When children learn a |
| partly built as a response to these class tensions, as | | | | language they first enter the stage of asking endless |
| the new less | | | | amount of "what is that?" questions. In this way |
| affluent immigrants began to establish their own | | | | children obtain vocabulary, which then allows children |
| sacred spaces. Divya Dham is located in former | | | | to proceed to the "why?" stage.Children connect the |
| electronics factory and its main deity (god): Vaisno | | | | underlying patterns of meanings in their environment |
| Devi, "appeals to people of all | | | | through responding to any sentence with another |
| castes and walks of life" back in India. We were | | | | "but why?" question, and in this way children learn to |
| interested in seeing whether we could discover a | | | | understand their own culture.Similarly I first obtained |
| trace of | | | | the knowledge about the names of objects and |
| similar class tensions within Hindu Mandir.However, | | | | rituals in the new environment through "what?" |
| our main focus was on investigating the issues of | | | | questions, after which I was ready to 'hunt' people |
| identity and belonging, which Hindu Mandir may have | | | | with my exhaustive lists of "why?" questions, in order |
| to offer for its members. There were four members | | | | to reveal meaning in the environment. The |
| in our research group. Our project concentrated on | | | | experience of doing fieldwork was very inspiring; as |
| the use of space in the Hindu Mandir and we looked | | | | doing research was not anymore just about reading |
| at | | | | theoretical |
| what does the space mean to the people who use | | | | literature, but all the theory became alive once you |
| it. We observed the form of rituals and symbolism, | | | | start looking for patterns in the observed |
| which are performed in the Hindu Mandir. We were | | | | environmentThe article was produced by the |
| curious about the consequences of having people | | | | member of |
| with | | | | Sharon White is a senior writer and writers |
| various cultural backgrounds using the same | | | | consultant at term papers. Get some useful tips for |
| worshipping space. Would people find this | | | | thesis and buy term papers . |
| problematic? Is the feeling or experience of | | | | |