BUTTERWORTH: Thousands of Hindu devotees came for the opening of the Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple of Devotion and Understanding in Seberang Jaya, which is billed as the country’s grandest Krishna temple.
The pinnacle of the day-long ceremony yesterday was the Kumbha Abhiseka, which saw holy water sprinkled from the top of the temple onto devotees after a series of prayers.
Temple co-president Kalesha Dasa Lim said the opening ceremony coincided with the 50th anniversary of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness’ (Iskcon) founding in the United States.
Among the devotees present was Universiti Malaya’s senior lecturer of linguistics Dr Sridevi Srinivass who came by bus with her three children and members of Iskcon Teluk Pulai in Klang, Selangor.
“The opening ceremony was so grand.
“It’s a temple like no other,” she said, claiming that the temple focused more on original Hinduism that dated back to more than 5,000 years ago.
The ceremony began at 6am with teachers and students from the Iskcon’s international school at its headquarters in Mayapur, West Bengal in India, performing rituals at the three-storey octagonal-shaped temple.
There were also fire rites and prayers followed by the bathing ceremony of Lord Krishna and the sanctifying of the three chakras.
The RM7mil temple, which took six years to build, features 16 ornate pavilions with three main Puti style towers and two glass skylight pyramidal domes.
Buildings located within its grounds are the Bhaktivedanta Cultural Centre that organises Food-For-Life distribution programmes and a variety of community, welfare and religious services.
There is also the Bhaktivedanta Multi-Purpose and Cultural Hall, which is a four-storey building with a 464.5 sq m hall and performance stage.
The temple is touted to be the first Hindu temple in the country to have 16 chatris (ornate dome-shaped pavilions), two octagon skylight domes and three main shikara domes.
