Shree Sanatan Hindu Mandir, Wembleyਸ਼੍ਰੀ ਸਨਾਤਨ ਹਿੰਦੂ ਮੰਦਰ, ਵੈਂਬਲੀ

From Ealing Road in Wembley, the first thing you see is gold. A honey coloured limestone temple rises behind its carved gateway in the middle of a busy north west London shopping street, its shikharas and domes covered in carving from base to finial. It looks centuries old, and in method it is: the Shree Sanatan Hindu Mandir was built the way temples were built a thousand years ago, with no steel anywhere in the structure. Yet it is younger than the smartphone in your pocket. The temple opened in the summer of 2010, after fourteen years of construction, as the second London home of the charity Shri Vallabh Nidhi UK.

What is the Shree Sanatan Hindu Mandir?

The Shree Sanatan Hindu Mandir is a Hindu temple off Ealing Road in Wembley, in the London Borough of Brent, England. It follows Sanatan Dharma, the name its community uses for the Hindu tradition, and it is deliberately open to every school of Hindu worship rather than one sect: its shrines hold dozens of deities side by side. The temple is run by Shri Vallabh Nidhi UK, a registered charity formed in June 1979, which also runs the Shri Nathji Mandir in Leytonstone, opened in June 1980. Wembley and Leytonstone sit across London from each other, and between them they serve the same community in the east and the west of the city. The Wembley mandir stands in the same borough as the BAPS Neasden Temple and a short journey from Bhaktivedanta Manor near Watford, and like Neasden it follows the North Indian Nagara tradition of temple building.

Built with no steel at all

The temple took fourteen years to build and cost £16 million, BBC News reported at its opening in 2010. It is made entirely of imported Indian limestone, and it was constructed according to the Hindu holy texts, so it contains no steel supports at all: no metal core, no steel frame, just stone fitted together by ancient technique. Reporting the opening, BBC News noted that the method dates back thousands of years and was used to construct Angkor Wat in Cambodia. The building stands 66 feet (20 metres) at its highest point, on a site of 2.4 acres, and an inscription on it reads Vasudev Kutumbakaum: the world is one family.

Carved in Gujarat, assembled in London

Most of the temple was made in India. Many of its component pieces were hand carved in the town of Sola, in the Indian state of Gujarat, then flown to Britain and assembled on site, and 41 marble statues of deities were made in India especially for the mandir. Inside, the pillars and walls carry elaborate carving, and the shrines hold painted figures of Hindu deities. The carving also reaches beyond Hinduism: among the figures worked into the temple are Mother Teresa and Guru Nanak, a quiet statement in stone that this house of worship does not close its doors to the wisdom of other faiths.

One temple, many deities

A devotee can walk one hall here and meet most of the Hindu pantheon. The shrines include Shri Ganeshji, Shri Radha Krishna, Shri Ram Darbar, Shri Shrinathji, Shri Tirupati Balaji, Shri Shiv Parivar, Shri Amba Mataji, Shri Hanumanji, Shri Sahajanand Swami, Shri Shirdi Sai Baba, Shri Saraswati Mata, the river goddesses Ganga and Yamuna, and the Navgraha, among others. That breadth is the point. The charity behind the temple was founded by Vaishnav Hindus, followers of the teaching of Shri Vallabhacharya, yet its temples are intended to be ecumenical: one roof for the whole Sanatan family. The charity explains the name itself simply: Sanatan means eternal, and dharma means religion, the faith that has existed from the beginning of time and will exist forever.

Festivals at the Wembley mandir

The temple year turns on the great shared festivals of the Hindu calendar. Its named festivals are Diwali, the festival of lights; Navratri, the nine nights of the Goddess; Krishna Janmashtami, the celebration of Krishna's birth; and Jalaram Jayanti, honouring the Gujarati saint Jalaram Bapa, whose shrine stands inside. At Diwali, Ealing Road's shops and restaurants fill with families moving between prayer, sweets and fireworks. For many local families, this is where the London they live in and the Gujarat of their devotion meet in one building.

Visiting the Wembley mandir

The mandir stands off Ealing Road in Wembley, in the London Borough of Brent. It welcomes worshippers daily, and visitors who simply want to see one of London's most remarkable modern buildings are received in the same spirit of openness the carvings announce. Check the Shri Vallabh Nidhi UK website for current darshan and aarti times before you travel. Wembley pairs naturally with the Neasden Temple in the same borough for a two temple day, and Jugti's guide to Mandirs in the United Kingdom gathers all three London area mandirs in one place.