For centuries throughout South Asia, the diversity of religious traditions, cultures, and languages has been celebrated. The diversity of the world region is complex, with its “fourteen major language groups and hundreds of dialects, its racial and caste diversity, its tribal, ethnic, and regional diversity, and rich and complex religious life.”[1] Oral and literary traditions, in the form of temples, shrines or mandirs, were dotting the South Asian landscape of ‘tirthas’ (fords or crossings) long before the development of the modern nation-state. In Hinduism, tirthas are considered sacred places, deeply connected to the natural landscape. They are sites considered to exist between heaven and earth, taking on site-specific qualities of forest, river, mountain, high point and view corridor, among other ephemeral qualities of nature. In the case of India particularly, religious traditions and cultural practices can be read through the sacred geography of pilgrimage sites. This practice has been in existence for over two thousand years and has become embedded throughout landscapes of the American suburb.
Sri Lakshmi Temple[2] is a Hindu temple in Ashland, Massachusetts. Lakshmi (श्री) is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism - the goddess of wealth, fortune, power, beauty, fertility, and prosperity. The Sri Lakshmi Temple was born as an idea in 1978, and as a temple in the summer of 1990, on approximately twelve acres of land. By 1978, approximately 2,400 South Asian immigrants resided in the greater Boston area.[3] Their religious traditions brought them together, which led them to create the New England Hindu Temple Society. They used the Knights of Columbus Hall (Melrose) and the Needham Village Club (Needham) to hold pooja (पूजा; to offer devotion and prayer) ceremonies. In 1981, a forested area atop a small hill in Ashland was selected to build the diaspora’s most prominent cultural marker yet, the first mandir was to have a South Indian design. Bound by a main road and three bodies of water (Farm Pond, Waushakum Pond, and Bracket Reservoir number two), Sri Lakshmi’s siting at the top of the hill gives her a sense of ephemerality not unlike the pilgrimage temple sites are experienced in India.[4] While the temple was being constructed in its enormity, Sri Lakshmi remained a key pilgrimage site for many South Asian residents. The site could hold large crowds and thus allowed many Hindu festivals, weddings, and poojas throughout the years. In 1989, ten silpis (संस्कृतम्; artisans) came from India to architecturally craft the work of the temple. Once the silpis arrived, the garbhagriha (known as the most important piece of the temple, contains the main deity) and the gopuram (entrance tower of the temple) began to take shape. Granite and bronze statues of various deities were meticulously fabricated and delivered to be cared for by Sri Lakshmi.
In both interior and exterior spaces, Sri Lakshmi offers a spiritual presence in a world away from her origins. Since her consecration in 1990, Sri Lakshmi has prominently revealed the South Asian diaspora. The sacred spaces captured in the suburb are significant, as the suburb provided plentiful space and natural features for planning heritage conservation. The temple on the hill is not only known for its devotion and prayer offerings, but it provides a sense of diasporic security – a remembrance of home and a space for community values to emerge. It is through the community that these sacred spaces continue to evolve through generations.
[1] Diana L. Eck, India: A Sacred Geography, 1st ed. (New York: Harmony Books, 2012), 44.
[2] “Sri Lakshmi Temple Ashland MA.” Accessed April 13, 2022. https://srilakshmi.org/.
[3] Quantitative statistics derived from the 1980 US Census Bureau report.
[4] Sri Lakshmi Temple, Temple Visitor. Interview. In-person Conversation, April 2, 2022.