Source: Hindustan Times
The first all-granite Hindu temple to ever be built outside of India is slowly taking shape on the tiny Hawaiian island of Kauai.
It is a massive project – involving a village of craftsmen in Bangalore, a score of Hindu monks on Kauai and nearly 9,000 individual donors from 65 countries.
Two decades in the making, once completed, the Iravian temple will be the centrepiece of the 51-acre San Marga Sanctuary.
The sanctuary is already home to another temple to Shiva, a monastery and acres of landscaped tropical gardens visited by approximately 10,000 visitors each year.
The monastery complex is located on the banks of the Wailua River, in the shadow of the 5,200-ft Mount Waialeale, the highest point on the island. The location is sacred to native Hawaiians and said to be the site of one of seven ancient temples that descended from Waialeale to the Pacific Ocean.