Perth Shiva Temple (Perth Hindu Temple), Canning Valeਪਰਥ ਸ਼ਿਵ ਮੰਦਰ (ਪਰਥ ਹਿੰਦੂ ਮੰਦਰ), ਕੈਨਿੰਗ ਵੇਲ

Perth's oldest Hindu temple does not look like it belongs to one region of India. Its towers and shrines deliberately mix North Indian, Gujarati, South Indian and Sri Lankan patterns, a choice its builders made for a congregation drawn from many countries. The Perth Shiva Temple, officially the Perth Hindu Temple, stands at 271 Warton Road, Canning Vale, and is dedicated to Shiva and to Meenakshi, who is referred to in the temple as Devi. Its long building story runs from plans in 1985 and land consecrated in 1987, through deities installed in February 1990 and a grand new temple consecrated in 2005, to a royal tower completed in June 2008.

What is the Perth Shiva Temple?

The Perth Shiva Temple is a Hindu temple in Canning Vale, a southern suburb of Perth, Western Australia, and it is the oldest Hindu temple in the state. Shiva and Meenakshi are its main deities. The shrines around them, listed on the temple's reference pages, include Ganesha, Murugan, Durga, Vishnu, Lakshmi, Hanuman, Bhairava, the Navagraha and an Athma Lingam. The temple's official site, maintained through the Hindu Association of Western Australia, presents its mission in community terms: to be a focal point for Hindu worship, prayer, education, community and family life in Perth. The temple opens every day, in the morning and again in the evening.

How was the temple built, in stages?

Plans for a Hindu temple in Perth began in 1985. The land was consecrated in 1987 by Swami Shantanand Saraswati, and construction of the multipurpose hall began in March 1989. By February 1990 the work had reached the point where the murtis, the sacred images, were installed. That early temple served the community while the larger ambition took shape beside it. The foundation ceremony for the new temple was held on 10 April 1998, and from August 2002 artisans from India, led by a master builder, or stapathi, named in reports as Devakottai S. Nagarajan, produced the detailed sculptural work on the shrine domes, pillars and walls.

The grand consecration of the new temple, its Maha Kumbhabishekam, was held on 8 September 2005. Reports of the day say about 2,000 people attended, the ceremonies ran under senior priests from Malaysia with assistance from priests from Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia and other Australian temples, and a sequence that began with a Ganesha Hawan on 13 July 2005 continued with 48 days of Yantra Pooja. One element still remained: the rajagopuram, the royal tower. The wider building project, including that tower, took over 20 years in total and was completed in June 2008, with the city council contributing to the tower's cost. A report carried by the Pluralism Project describes the tower's consecration as a moment of pride for a state Hindu community then put at about 8,000 people.

Why does the temple mix so many regional styles?

Temple officials explained the design at the 2005 consecration as a response to who Perth's Hindus actually are: migrants from different regions of India and from countries including Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Fiji and South Africa. So the architecture draws on North India, on Gujarat in the west, on Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala in the south, and on Sri Lanka. In the detail reported at the time, one entrance tower and the icons on one side, including Vishnu, Lakshmi and Hanuman, follow the North Indian pattern, while the other entrance tower follows a Gujarati pattern and its icons, including Kartikeya (Murugan), follow South Indian and Sri Lankan patterns. Officials called the result a structure with no exact parallel, and whatever a visitor makes of that claim, the intent is easy to read: no one regional community was asked to leave its own temple forms at the door.

What happens at the temple today?

Daily worship frames the temple's week, and its priests perform poojas for particular deities. Three observances give its calendar its shape in the reference accounts. At Maha Shivaratri the temple stays open through a full day and night of fasting and meditation for Shiva. Pradosham brings prayers to Shiva twice a month, in the hours around sunset on the thirteenth day of each fortnight, with an hour of mantra singing. During Purattasi, prayers honour Perumal, a form of Vishnu, with a vegetarian feast each Saturday. The official site's calendar adds the wider festival round familiar across Hindu traditions, including Navaratri, and regular bhajan sessions, among them youth bhajans and North Indian bhajans on set Fridays each month.

Visiting the Perth Shiva Temple

The temple is at 271 Warton Road, Canning Vale WA 6155, south of central Perth, and its official site lists opening hours of 6 am to 12 noon and 6 pm to 9 pm, with a slightly longer morning session on Saturdays and Sundays. There is no charge described for entering, and the temple welcomes visitors as well as worshippers, but it remains a working place of worship first: modest dress, removing shoes before the shrine areas, and keeping photography to the outside are the courtesies regular visitors recommend. Anyone travelling across Perth for a festival such as Maha Shivaratri should check the temple's calendar or phone ahead, because festival days extend well beyond the normal hours.