New Hindu temple is Europe's biggest
Aug 4 2006
By Dale Williams, Birmingham Mail
THE largest Hindu temple in Europe opens in the Midlands on August 23, with 10,000 worshippers expected to take part in the celebrations.
Priests will be brought in from India to perform ceremonies as part of five days of festivities begin.
It marks the culmination of an eight-year building project to create the huge Shri Venkateswara Temple in Dudley Road East, Tividale.
The £6.5 million temple on a 13.5 acre plot is also available for community use.
The temple, built in the same style as the revered Tirupati Temple in India, was part-funded with National Lottery cash.
The celebrations will culminate in the sanctification of the temple and the installation of a 12ft Lord Krishna.
A spokesman for the temple trustees said: "This is the fulfilment of a long-cherished dream, the end of a long road and the beginning of a new era."
The former Black Country Development Corporation gave the scheme initial planning consent as long ago as 1987.
Building it involved using skilled craftsmen from India to make the intricate carvings.
The design is a blend of traditional and modern Indian architecture.
Bimal Das, secretary of the National Council of Hindu Temples, said: "This is great news for the British Hindu community. The opening of this great temple will be a wonderful addition to the multi-religious society of Britain."
Dear Mr Das, Britain was a wonderful society prior to the liberals and socialists treacherous decision to flood our land with multiculturalism and all that it entails. It is no longer a wonderful society. It is one full of foreign faces, languages, buildings and smells. It is one full of crime, violence and new laws designed to protect the incomers at the expense of the original inhabitants. We are a Christian society. We didn't need or want an influx of more religions...and all the foreigners and revolting practices that come with these religions. However, you would not remember the wonderful society it used to be - you weren't here then...