BARTLETT, ILLINIOS, July 1, 2007: In the parking lot of the new Jain temple in Bartlett, workers are prying open crates of white marble shipped from India – slabs, carved columns, elephants and lions, intricate domes for the interior niches where 24 stone deities sit. All would seem to be ready for wrapping the cinder-block walls in marble and adding the ornamentation, but there’s a problem. Five masons needed to set the stone in place are stuck in India. The U.S. government has yet to issue the visas the craftsmen applied for in September, delaying the project by at least a year, temple officials said. Nationwide, Eastern religions are struggling to import workers they regard as essential to the practice of their faith but who do not fit traditional categories under which religious organizations obtain visas.
In some cases, like the Bartlett Jains, temples try to bring in workers with special skills as well as deep familiarity with their sacred iconography. “Masons must know how to fit 441,000 pounds of stone together without any steel binding and be able to accurately rechisel details of carvings damaged in shipping,” said Vinod Patel, whose Austin, Texas, construction firm is overseeing the stonework in Bartlett.