UAE : Prayer ceremonies will be held in January and over the summer to bless the Hindu temple being built in the Jebel Ali area of Dubai.
The prayers are to purify the shrine and ready it before the official opening in September next year.
Nine kalashas – brass fittings that will cap the domes – are being shipped from Ujjain city in central India this month.
The tallest kalash (apex of the spire) is 1.8 metres and weighs about 120 kilograms.
The metal structure will tower over eight surrounding spires, each about 1.2m high and weighing about 90kg.
Temple officials said prayers at the end of January, and through July and August, will be key to prepare the shrine before the installation of the kalash and the 16 deities to be housed within.
“Visibly you can now see the shape of the temple come up,” Raju Shroff, a trustee of the Sindhi Guru Darbar temple that oversees the construction work.
“Between now and the next three months you will see major changes.
“The kalash is the most important part as the ornament placed on top of the temple after the structure is 100 per cent ready.
“The first thing that will go up after the January puja will be the kalash.
“We wanted a temple that was like Dubai,” Mr Shroff said.
“We were keen on a contemporary look because you have the historic Bastakiya and Shindagha areas, but this new temple is in new Dubai.”
The trust also runs a Hindu shrine in a small building in Bur Dubai that recently received clearance to restore opening timings to levels before the coronavirus outbreak.
At the Jebel Ali site, construction work has been completed at a quick pace across a space that will accommodate 1,500 worshippers.
Large glass panes have been fitted to the skylight, white tiles fixed on walls and marble laid on the staircase leading to a large prayer hall on the upper level.
A small group of community members will be part of the January ceremony, which will last a few days.
“The kalash prayers will take a couple of days because it brings in energy to the temple,” he said.
“It is a small puja but the kalash has a big significance because even when people look at it from far away they can pray to it.”
