Global Stories · Canada
In Richmond Hill, Ontario, the Hindu Temple Society of Canada undertook a remarkable, decades-long project to build what is recognized as the largest stone Hindu temple in North America, a project that began, fittingly, with the installation of Shree Ganesh.
A Project Spanning Generations
Chartered in 1973, the Hindu Temple Society of Canada began construction in 1975 with the installation of a Ganesha murti, and the temple's grand altar towers were not completed until 2001, a building effort spanning over a quarter century, carried forward by a community determined to see it through.
Built According to Ancient Tradition
Constructed following the Agama Shastras, the traditional Hindu scriptures governing temple architecture and consecration, the temple represents a serious, sustained commitment to authentic religious construction, undertaken far from India by a community determined to do it properly.
What This Temple Reveals
That this ambitious, generations-long project began specifically with Shree Ganesh's own installation reflects, on a truly monumental scale, the same principle followed by every smaller shrine in this collection: that any great undertaking rightly begins with him.