How a massive Hindu temple made entirely of granite and hand-carved ended up on the lush Hawaiian island of Kauai

KAPAA, Hawaii (AP) — It is the only all-granite, hand-carved Hindu temple in the West that was built without power tools or electricity, and it is located on one of Hawaii’s smaller islands. Hawaii It is surrounded by gardens and lush forests.

On the island of Kauai, the presence of the Erayvan Temple – a white granite edifice with domes covered in gold leaf, similar to millennia-old temples in southern India – is unexpected and awe-inspiring. Less than 1 percent of Hawaii’s 1.4 million people are Hindu, and on Kauai, the number of Hindus may be as few as 50, according to some estimates.

But that hasn’t stopped the dozens of monks living on the Kauai Aadheenam Campus from being good neighbors and stewards of their religious tradition, attracting pilgrims and seekers from around the world. In this male-only monastery and temple complex, monks study and practice Shaivism, a major tradition within Hinduism, Which holds Lord Shiva as the Supreme Being.

One of the monks of the order, who has spent decades supervising the construction of the temple and tending to its gardens, is Paramacharya Sadasivanatha Palaniswami, who came to the Kauai community of Kapaa in 1968 with his mentor and founder of the center, the late Satguru Sivaiah Subramuniswamy. He says that the Iraivan Temple was inspired by the founder’s mystical vision of Lord Shiva sitting on a large rock on these foundations. Its construction began in 1990 and continued after the founder’s death in 2001. The word “Iraivan” means “one who is worshipped” in Tamil, the language spoken about 8,000 miles away in southern India.

Palaniswami said the monks have created an entire village in India of artisans who have built the temple by hand over the past 33 years.

“Our teacher believes that electricity brings a magnetic force field and a psychic effect,” he said. “It’s as if when the power goes out during a storm, something different happens when there’s no power. There’s a certain stillness, a calm.”

Iraivan, which is lit only by oil lamps, has no fans or air conditioning. Its architectural style dates back to the Chola dynasty, which ruled parts of what is now southern India and Sri Lanka for about 1,500 years, starting in 300 BC.

The main deity is the 700-pound quartz crystal Shivalingam, an abstract representation of Shiva. The campus also houses the Kadavul Temple dedicated to Shiva in the form of a cosmic dancer, or Nataraja.

Rev. Praveenkumar Vasudeva arrived in March, when the temple, made up of 3,600 stones, pillars and beams made of about 3.2 million pounds of granite, was dedicated. He was still amazed that he was standing on this small island.

“In India, it is possible to build something like this, but it has not been done,” he said. “Here, it’s almost impossible, but it’s been done.”

The order’s origin story begins in 1948 with its founder Subramuniswamy, a former San Francisco ballet dancer who was searching for a spiritual teacher. In northern Sri Lanka, Guru Yogaswami initiated him into Shaivism and instructed him to build “a bridge between East and West,” said Palaniswami, the monk who tends the garden.

The founder, who was based in San Francisco in 1969, “felt the sacred pull” of Kauai ownership while at a resort there, Monk said. It was a rundown Tropical Inn resort at the time.

To the native Hawaiians, the plot of land was known as Pihanakalani, or “full of the sky.” Recognizing this connection, Subramuniaswamy wanted to ensure that the new temple was in keeping with the spirits of Native Hawaiians.

So, 35 years ago, he reached out to Lin Muramoto, a local Buddhist leader who faced a similar situation. She is president of the International Lawai Center on Kauai, which houses 88 Shingon Buddhist shrines on an ancient sacred site where Hawaiians once came for healing.

She visited the temple site with the late Abraham Kauai, a revered Hawaiian spiritual practitioner, or Kahu, and witnessed the “deeply moving” moment when Kauai described the site as “perfect.”

Sabra Kauka, a Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner on Kauai, said she was “a little terrified” at first, but then consulted Auntie Momi Mookeni Lom, her Calabash aunt who is descended from Moikiha, the Tahitian chief who built Pihanakalani some 1,000 years ago. . Lom tells her that the monks have the means to care for the land forever. “So I brought up my concerns,” she said.

Cauca praised the monks’ landscaping, from plant choices to combating invasive species.

“The fact that there are people on this island who care about our historic places, who understand their value and take care of them in a wonderful way, is wonderful,” Kauka said.

Subramuniswami prioritized strengthening ties across the island’s religious traditions. These relationships extended far beyond Kauai, and continue today. In the killer’s wake Wildfires in Maui In August, the temple helped connect Hindu donors with local groups leading recovery efforts, Palaniswami said.

The monastery and temple complex, accessible via a public gate, also helps connect visitors to something greater. Devajyothi Kondapi of Portland, Oregon, had only heard stories of great saints and sages in ancient India who blessed and sanctified the earth.

“Here, I feel their presence,” she said during a recent visit, a trip she makes a few times a year. “What makes this place divine is the discipline of the monks.”

The monks, who take vows of celibacy, nonviolence and vegetarianism, are guided and inspired by the philosophy of Shaivism. They live in huts, and begin their day with worship and meditation at 4 a.m., followed by gardening, carpentry, cooking, and other tasks. They don’t talk about their previous lives.

Aside from the temple itself, one of their most important projects took eight years to complete. In the 1990s, the monks digitized the agamas, or ancient Shaivite texts engraved on palm fronds, Palaniswami said.

They preserved these fragile texts, or as Palaniswami calls them, a shaivite “user’s manual of sorts,” and made the digital version available to the public. Now anyone can read Shaivite instructions on everything from running a temple and celebrating festivals to preparing meals and managing a household.

Satguru Bodhinatha Vilanswami, the current leader of the order, said that the Shaivite tradition is one that combines belief in gods and monotheism, the belief in one supreme being. The ultimate goal is to achieve unity with the Supreme Being.

“A beautiful, sacred place has the motivational power to help you find that sacredness within you.”

Sanyasin Thilinathaswamy, a monk who has lived here for more than a decade, said this ancient practice attracted him because it delves into the meaning of one’s existence.

He said: “If you find the center of yourself, you have found what is the center of everything.”

Over the past 50 years, Palaniswami, who knows every strip of the 382-acre grounds, has carved out tranquil spaces conducive to contemplation and contemplation. The monk wears flowing saffron robes and a thin silver beard. His hair was gathered into a bun on top of his head, decorated with a red hibiscus flower. There are streaks of holy ash on his forehead, highlighted by a crimson dot in the middle.

Most days, Palaniswami, who also runs the organization’s website and publications department, drives a golf cart along the winding paths tending to the plants — plumerias, orchids, hibiscus, passion fruit, redwoods, lotuses and grasses.

Along with his guru, he planted 108 Rudraksha trees, which are native to Nepal and rarely seen in the West. The word “Rudraksha” in Sanskrit means “tear of Shiva”. The trees bear heavenly fruits, and their seeds are used for prayer, meditation, and protection.

“Shiva was in the sky and looked down at the earth, and when he saw the plight of human beings, he was so moved that he cried a tear that rolled down his cheek and fell to the ground,” Palaniswami said. “From those tears grew the first Rudraksha tree.”

The trees started out as 3-inch-tall seedlings about 45 years ago, and now stand more than 100 feet tall with thick roots. Palaniswami, who plans to build a public meditation room, said monks would pressure wash the seeds, then tie them into a meditation mala, and wear them as a reminder of Shiva’s compassion.

For Vilanswami, the congregation’s leader, his favorite meditation spot on campus is where a gentle waterfall meets the flowing Wailua River, a sacred place to some native Hawaiians.

He says he feels a transformative power there, especially when he chants Shiva’s name.

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Audrey McAvoy reported from Honolulu.

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