REUNION, December 27, 2013 (Temoignages, translated from the original French):
HPI note: Reunion is a Dpartment (like a state) of France located off the African coast with a substantial Tamil population brought years ago to the island. This training project is a major innovation as parts of the Tamil population work to re-establish their Hindu faith, earlier generations having converted to Catholicism.
On December 23, a training agreement concerning Indian crafts was signed by Daniel Minienpoulle, president of the Reunion Tamil Federation and Bernard Picardo, president of the government Chamber of Trades and Crafts in Reunion. It was signed at a conference in the presence of the Consul General of India, Raju George, the director of the government office of employment and the director of the Reunion Island Chamber of Commerce. A steering committee will be set up in February/March 2014 with various partners: the Chamber of Trades, the Tamil Federation, the Regional and Department government representatives, the DIECCTE, employment center, local Mission and DRAC-OI.
At the signing of this agreement, Daniel Minienpoulle reported that “over the past 30 years, major renovations of Hindu temples have been made in Reunion. In an effort to transfer the Indian know-how, given the demand in Reunion and high unemployment, it is important for us to provide the establishment of a training facility for Reunion artisans to learn how to do Indian temple art (sculpture, painting and decorating) in terms of maintenance and renovation.”
In the early 1990’s the services of sthapatis (architects) and shilpis (skilled workers,) experts in the art of Indian temple construction, was obtained from South India. Their mission was to renovate the Indo-Creole style wood and concrete temples and transform them as much as possible to the South Indian style.The first two temples to see this renovation was the Colossus Kovil, inaugurated in 1995, and the Saint-Denis temple in 1996. Nearly twenty temples have since been rebuilt or renovated, and the process is still ongoing with a potential further fifty places of worship planned. Private cultural venues have also benefited from this renovation initiative.
This initiative will insure that there is a local source of artisans who are able to properly maintain the temples that have already been renovated and provide employment opportunity for Reunion labor in upcoming renovation work.