Overview
- The Sri Ganesha Hindu Temple opened this week with multi-day consecration rites that began June 3 and culminated in a Maha Kumbhabhishekam, after which the site started welcoming visitors.
- The Dravida-style complex features a roughly 17-metre gilded tower topped with more than 200 colorful sculptures, sits on about 5,000 square metres leased from Neukölln for 85 years, and includes an 850-square-metre temple hall.
- Organizers say the project cost about €1.1 million and was paid entirely by donations and volunteer labor, with construction first planned in 2005 and work under way from around 2010 but repeatedly delayed by permit problems, seasonal building limits and material hold-ups such as late granite deliveries.
- The temple opens for people of different Hindu traditions and the broader public with daily puja services, an on-site priest already in service, and evening cultural programs of music, dance and bhajans during the inauguration week.
- The site has drawn political attention because RSS general-secretary Dattatreya Hosabale spoke there in April, a development that several outlets have reported and that organizers and local officials will likely face questions about as the temple becomes an established community hub.