HARVEST, ALABAMA, USA, June 9, 2006: Hand-carved marble images of Hindu deities gleamed with a quiet peace last week in their ground floor storage room at the Hindu Cultural Center in Harvest. This weekend, the six icons will be installed in their shrines in the temple with rituals and prayers. The ceremonies at the temple, only the second temple in Alabama, will attract Hindus from around the area. The temple serves 700 area families, but visitors will be coming from around the world for the ceremonies. At the center of the three-day celebration and temple inauguration will be ritual installation of the six Deities, the final six of nine in the temple here. The temple, under construction for several years, features painstaking hand decorations outside and inside. Last week, Indian artisan Pandi Kumar used an instrument as thin as a crochet needle to hand-work the inlays of decorative scrolls around one of the shrines. The details help convey the intricacies of Hinduism. The temple attracts many visitors, especially on Sundays. Anyone is welcome to pray in the temple.
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