News Reports
PALM BEACH, FLORIDA, November 10, 2003: On a sidewalk, Vidya Heman sold mitai, bara, cassava pone and other treats as part of a celebration of Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, thrown recently by West Palm Beach’s Tropical East and West Indian Grocery. She was raising money to build a new mandir — a Hindu temple. The Florida Hindu Cultural and Religious Association, of which Heman is president, bought 2.7 acres near Royal Palm Beach but still needs about $200,000 to build the structure. The temple is one of two mandirs planned for Palm Beach County by Hindus of Indian descent from Trinidad and Guyana. Plans for construction of two new mandirs in Palm Beach County reflect the growing number of Trinidadian and Guyanese Hindus in the area. In addition to the two Caribbean mandirs, there’s a temple in Boynton Beach that draws mainly Indian Hindus.