PFORZHEIM, GERMANY, July 2011 (pz news): Journalists participated in a recent open house of the Sri Nagapoosany Aalayam Amman temple in Pforzheim, 30 miles west of Stuttgart, Germany. They report that the temple association, which founded the temple in 2007 in rented quarters, has signed a purchase contract for the building just a few days ago. One hundred forty Sri Lankan families living in Pforzheim and nearby Muhlacker worship at the temple located at Turnstrasse 8A.
There is only one sign on the building on Turnstrasse 8a for the 210-member congregation of the Sri Nagapoosany Aalayam Amman temple. Those who are curious about it are about to pass into a world full of Indian customs and foreign deities. It smells of incense, Indian sitar music fills the room, women sing in silk robes, men carry trays with fruit and flower petals. This is the scene that presents itself to visitors to the Hindu temple in the middle of Pforzheim.
“Hinduism has a close relationship to nature,” says the 20-year-old Manibharathy Tharmaratnam from Muehlacker who leads visitors through the temple. There is neither a dogmatic doctrine, nor a creator in the usual sense of the word. “Our faith teaches us rather that God is not above, but surrounds us everywhere.”