Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Over­look­ing the city of Port-of-Spain, many are un­fa­mil­iar with the Kailash mandir and its his­to­ry. The tem­ple was built in Gon­za­les over 70 years ago, by Hin­du devo­tees who set­tled in Port-of-Spain.

The mandir trans­formed from a mud hut to a con­crete struc­ture and it is now be­ing trans­formed to its pris­tine glo­ry.

With Di­vali cel­e­bra­tions ex­pect­ed to com­mence in the next few days, a com­mu­ni­ty or­gan­i­sa­tion called the Com­mu­ni­ty Re-De­vel­op­ers start­ed the process of up­keep­ing the mandir.

Pub­lic Re­la­tions Of­fi­cer, Kevin Fe­lix said the or­gan­i­sa­tion was fo­cused on help­ing the com­mu­ni­ty and work­ing on projects to make it safer.

He said the group is made up of ad­vo­cates who are fo­cussed on bring­ing the com­mu­ni­ty back to a place where they once en­joyed liv­ing like neigh­bours.

“This is a mon­u­ment in the com­mu­ni­ty that we all grow up and have been see­ing a lot of fes­ti­vals and a lot of stuff used to hap­pen here so just like in Wa­ter­loo there is the Tem­ple in the Sea, we in Gon­za­les, Tem­ple Street have the Tem­ple in the Sky. So we re­al­ly just want to re­fur­bish the place. We have phase one of the projects to look at re­fur­bish­ing the out­side where we will be paint­ing and look­ing at the roof as well,” Fe­lix said.

Com­mu­ni­ty Re-De­vel­op­ers is al­so look­ing at oth­er projects, from skills train­ing, fundrais­ers and oth­er in­fra­struc­ture projects in the com­mu­ni­ty.

Kailash Mandir was left in the wilder­ness and this Di­vali the group ex­pects to light the tem­ple up with deyas, a sight that will be seen in the city.

Tem­ple devo­tee and a man who helped build the first struc­ture with his bare hands, Micheal Jhi­noo re­mem­bers the day when the de­ci­sion was made to build the tem­ple.

He says he was just about 15 years old.

“I re­mem­ber cut­ting Tapia grass and mix­ing it with mud as the el­ders di­rect­ed us that they were plan­ning to build the tem­ple on the hill. I fol­lowed as a young boy and helped the el­ders”, he said.

So why is it named Kailash?

It is de­rived from the name of a moun­tain in the Hi­malayas that is be­lieved to be the par­adise of the Hin­du God Shi­va.

They hope that this Di­vali, the Kailash mandir will beam from the hill­top.