SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, January 29, 2007: After a 16-year wait, San Antonio’s Hindu temple finally has received its crowning touch, a raja gopuram –literally, a “kingly pagoda” — that identifies the building with its roots in South India. The gopuram, a 42-foot-high entrance tower built by Indian artisans with statues of 52 Hindu Deities sculpted in concrete on site over the past eight months and painted white, was sanctified Sunday. The ceremony was conducted by two resident temple priests assisted by two other priests from Austin and Houston temples. Several hundred people attended. “This is my dream come true,” said Venkateshwar Goud, a member since 1991, when the temple building itself was completed. “The temple is finally complete. It’s wonderful. We’re all blessed.” No Hindu temple is considered authentic unless it has a gopuram built according to scriptural specifications by artisans from India and sanctified according to Hindu rituals. The door must face east.
“It’s like the entrance to a palace,” said Dr. Rajender Thusu, a longtime temple member. “It’s the entrance to God’s house. The various Deities protect both the house itself and the people.” Every gopuram is built to be seen from a distance. That way, even people who don’t have the opportunity to go to the temple may pray whenever they see it or pass it. Ram Kushwaha, president of the temple trustees, said the 15-year wait for the US$120,000 gopuram was necessitated by the requirement that a specially trained team of 10 sculptors from India do the work.