Dubai [UAE]: Newly inaugurated Hindu temple in Dubai has 16 different deities, a community centre for hosting several events and activities, and an outreach programme platform which is yet to open, according to the trustee of the temple.
A decade-long Indian dream of a Hindu temple in the Jebel Ali area was fulfilled on Tuesday after UAE’s Minister of Tolerance Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan launched a new Hindu temple.
“Today is the official inauguration of the Hindu temple in Dubai. We are now part of the worship village,” Raju Shroff, trustee of the Hindu Temple said yesterday.
He informed that the idea behind the community centre in Dubai’s worship village is to congregate people and make them feel at home.
“We have created both, a place of worship with 16 different deities with North, South and East, West India so that everybody from all parts of Hinduism can come and visit us. We also have a community centre which will host community events and activities – religious activities, personal events, ceremonies, and birthdays. The idea is to congregate people and make them feel at home in Dubai,” said Shroff, who is also a member of the managing committee.
“The idea to have a temple is not only for the place of worship but also to become a knowledge centre and also an outreach programme platform. We will be doing that in January, once the temple is stabilized and settled. A lot of people are coming through the temple once we are stable we are opening the centre which will teach languages, and arts culture to various people who would like to come and participate, run by volunteers for the community. And we will have an outreach programme to help the underprivileged by the community members,” he added.
The temple was inaugurated a day ahead of the Dussehra festival and the temple is an extension of the Sindhi Guru Darbar Temple, one of the oldest Hindu temples in the UAE. The temple’s foundation was laid in February 2020.
The temple, which officially opens to the public on Wednesday — the day of the Dussehra festival, welcomes people of all faiths and has allowed entry to worshippers and other visitors to view the 16 deities and other interior works, reported Gulf News.
Welcoming people from all faiths, the temple has already had its soft opening on September 1, where thousands of visitors were allowed to get a glimpse of the temple’s interiors built with white marble. It has ornate pillars, Arabic and Hindu geometric designs on the facade, and bells on the ceiling.
The temple management activated the QR-code-based appointment booking system via its website on its soft opening.
The temple has received many visitors from day one, especially over the weekends. The restricted entry has been regulated through QR-coded appointments for crowd management and to ensure social distancing, the report said.
Most of the deities are installed in the main prayer hall with a large 3D-printed pink lotus unfurling across the central dome.
According to the official temple website, Dubai’s new Hindu temple will be open from 6:30 am to 8 pm.
Visitors who have booked their appointments to visit the temple from Dubai’s official website for October 5, will be allowed entry without being subject to the hourly number restrictions which are currently in place.
Moreover, the temple in Dubai has a whooping capacity to easily accommodate around 1,000 to 1,200 worshippers on a daily basis.
Located in what is described as the ‘Worship Village’ in Jebel Ali which houses several churches and the Guru Nanak Darbar Gurudwara, the temple also installed the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book of the Sikhs, in August. (ANI)
