PALERMO, ITALY, May 26, 2011: The former garage space on Imperatore Federico street, which was converted into a place of worship by the Hindus in Palermo, is suffering the stress of success. Too many people are coming to worship!
So Viky Sahy, after searching in vain for a rental space, has decided to set up a temple for the Mauritian community in his own home in the heart of the Ballaro district of Palermo. “In the garage temple we used for so many years,” says 43 year old Viky, “there were too many communities competing for time for prayer. Apart from us Mauritians, the Shiv Shakti temple is used by Sri Lankans and Bengali Hindus.”
His new temple will not only be used as a place of worship. “We also have meetings for kids,” Viky said, “to keep alive our culture and our traditions, especially our children who are born and grow up here.”
For the future, the idea is to create a religious association that brings together all the Mauritian Hindus who began to immigrate into Palermo in the eighties and now numbers about a thousand people.
[HPI note: You can know more about the Shiv Shakti Mandir Palermo here.]