ITCX serves as guiding light to prominent Hindu temples abroad

Tirupati: The international temples convention and expo (ITCX) aims to help Hindu temples located outside India to adopt some of the best practices in temple management showcased by prominent Hindu temples in the country, including the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, Shri Saibaba Sanathan at Shirdi, and Siddhi Vinayak temple in Mumbai.S Rajendran Chettiar, managing trustee of Kathiresan temple in Colombo, Sree Muthumariamman and Kathirvelayutha Swamy temple at Negombo, and the legendary Bhaktha Hanuman temple at Ramboda, who took part in both the first and second editions of ITCX at Varanasi and Tirupati, said such conventions are quintessential for dissemination of knowledge and information on the key nuances of temple management."Managing temples in Sri Lanka where the Hindu population is just around 16% of the total 2.3 crore population is quite a challenge. While annual festivals are celebrated in a grand manner in Hindu temples across India, the temples in Sri Lanka have numerous financial constraints but we still manage to celebrate some festivals in a grand way," Chettiar said.The 26ft-tall Lord Hanuman temple at Ramboda is one of the iconic Hindu temples in Sri Lanka, and attracts a good turnout of devotees from across the world. As per legends, Lord Hanuman set his foot on this hillock for the first time while searching for Goddess Sita, who was abducted and held captive by demon king Ravana. Similarly, the Kathiresan temple and Muthumariamman Kathirvelayutha Swamy temple, popularly known as Nattukottai Nagarathar Chettiar temples, established in Sri Lanka about 200 years ago by the Chettinad community from Tamil Nadu, also attract a huge turnout of devotees.Chettiar said the key takeaways at the ITCX include best practices in crowd management, improvement in sanitation standards at temple premises, and extension of world class services to visiting devotees. "I can replicate some of these best practices at the Hindu temples in Sri Lanka," he added.Trustees and representatives of other temples including the Pindeswar Dham, Dantakali temple, Budhasubba temple, and Panchakanya temple near Kathmandu in Nepal also took part in the ITCX convention. Suman Dalal, a temple trustee from Nepal, said there are lots of Hindu temples in and around Kathmandu. "The management set-up in Hindu temples there is similar to that in India. While the state govt monitors and controls bigger temples, individual trusts manage the affairs of smaller temples," Dalal said, adding that ITCX is a great platform to take Hinduism to another level globally. "When larger temple trusts like the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams showcase their best practices, there is a lot to learn as other temple trusts located across the globe can adopt and replicate the same practices."Selvendran from Canada, who manages Tirupati Venkatachalapathi temple at Scarborough, said the temple dedicated to Lord Venkateswara was established in 2013. "The daily rituals and annual festivals like the Brahmotsavams and Radhasapthami are observed on a grand note at this Balaji temple in Canada as well. The priest working at this temple is a native of Tirupati too," Selvendran said. He added that they have recently introduced distribution of Annaprasadams at the temple, ensuring that the prasadam distribution goes on continuously from the time the temple opens till the time of its closure. "It is one of the busiest Hindu temples in Canada which attracts nearly 3,000 devotees during weekends and during important festivals," he said.Selvendran said they now plan to take up gold plating works at the Canada temple. "We found some of the finest craftsmen in temple gold plating related works at the ITCX. We also want to introduce virtual darshan for devotees and were able to get linked to a service provider who has volunteered to develop an application to suit our needs," he said, adding that such conventions should be conducted more frequently.
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