Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Cor­re­spon­dent

As the af­ter­noon sun be­gins its slow de­scent over the Gulf of Paria, vis­i­tors make their way along the nar­row cause­way lead­ing to one of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s most trea­sured land­marks.

The Tem­ple in the Sea, ris­ing from the wa­ters off Wa­ter­loo, re­mains a strik­ing sym­bol of faith and de­ter­mi­na­tion.

Once ap­pear­ing to float serene­ly above the gulf, the colour­ful Hin­du shrine is now framed by en­croach­ing man­groves along the edges of the cause­way.

Yet its beau­ty—and the re­mark­able sto­ry be­hind it—con­tin­ues to draw wor­ship­pers, his­to­ri­ans, pho­tog­ra­phers and tourists from across the globe.

Of­fi­cial­ly known as the Sew­dass Sad­hu Shiv Mandir, the tem­ple tells the sto­ry of one man’s re­fusal to al­low ad­ver­si­ty to si­lence his faith.

A tem­ple born from de­fi­ance

The sto­ry be­gins more than a cen­tu­ry ago.

Be­tween 1845 and 1917, more than 140,000 In­di­ans ar­rived in Trinidad un­der the in­den­ture­ship sys­tem to work on sug­ar es­tates fol­low­ing the abo­li­tion of slav­ery.

Many even­tu­al­ly set­tled in cen­tral Trinidad, es­tab­lish­ing com­mu­ni­ties such as Wa­ter­loo, Cara­pichaima, Or­ange Field and Brick­field, where In­di­an tra­di­tions, re­li­gion and cul­ture con­tin­ue to flour­ish.

Among them was Sew­dass Sad­hu, the son of in­den­tured labour­ers and a deeply de­vout Hin­du.

In the 1930s, Sad­hu built a small shrine ded­i­cat­ed to Lord Shi­va on land owned by the Tate and Lyle Sug­ar Com­pa­ny. Es­tate of­fi­cials de­mand­ed its re­moval, in­sist­ing he had no per­mis­sion to build there.

Sad­hu re­fused.

His act of de­fi­ance re­sult­ed in his ar­rest, a 14-day prison sen­tence and a hefty fine. The tem­ple was de­mol­ished. For many, that would have been the end. For Sad­hu, it was mere­ly the be­gin­ning.

Be­liev­ing that no one could claim own­er­ship of the sea, he re­solved to build a tem­ple be­yond the reach of the es­tate au­thor­i­ties.

Over the next 25 years, he trans­port­ed stones, sand, ce­ment and dis­card­ed build­ing ma­te­ri­als on his bi­cy­cle be­fore car­ry­ing them by hand in­to the Gulf of Paria. Slow­ly and painstak­ing­ly, he cre­at­ed a rocky foun­da­tion stretch­ing in­to the sea be­fore con­struct­ing a new tem­ple.

His ex­tra­or­di­nary labour be­came a last­ing tes­ta­ment to per­se­ver­ance, re­li­gious free­dom and un­wa­ver­ing con­vic­tion.

The home of Sewdass Sadhu, now in a dilapidated state.

Shastri Boodan

Pre­serv­ing a na­tion­al trea­sure

Sad­hu died in 1970, and with­out reg­u­lar main­te­nance, the orig­i­nal tem­ple grad­u­al­ly suc­cumbed to the sea.

By the ear­ly 1990s, much of the struc­ture had de­te­ri­o­rat­ed.

Recog­nis­ing its his­tor­i­cal and cul­tur­al sig­nif­i­cance, the Gov­ern­ment, the Hin­du Prachar Kendra and com­mu­ni­ty groups launched a restora­tion project.

Un­der the guid­ance of Ran­dolph Ram­per­sad, a new oc­tag­o­nal tem­ple was con­struct­ed far­ther off­shore and of­fi­cial­ly opened in 1995 dur­ing cel­e­bra­tions mark­ing the 150th an­niver­sary of the ar­rival of In­di­an in­den­tured labour­ers in Trinidad.

To­day, colour­ful jhan­di flags flut­ter in the sea breeze while a bronze stat­ue of Sew­dass Sad­hu over­looks the tem­ple from the shore­line—a silent guardian watch­ing over the lega­cy he cre­at­ed.

The Tem­ple in the Sea re­mains an ac­tive place of wor­ship, wel­com­ing vis­i­tors of every faith while serv­ing as one of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s most pho­tographed des­ti­na­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly at sun­set.

The Temple in the Sea, Waterloo.

Shastri Boodan

A fam­i­ly’s fad­ing con­nec­tion

Just min­utes away, near the cor­ner of Wa­ter­loo Road and Roops­ingh Road, stands an­oth­er chap­ter of Sad­hu’s sto­ry.

A fad­ed green house adorned with a paint­ing of Hanu­man is the fam­i­ly home where gen­er­a­tions of the Sew­dass fam­i­ly lived.

The wood­en-and-con­crete struc­ture, now more than 80 years old, sits aban­doned. Rot­ten beams, col­laps­ing walls and years of ne­glect have left it be­yond re­pair.

Narvin Sew­dass, 44, one of Sad­hu’s grand­sons, says the fam­i­ly has re­luc­tant­ly ac­cept­ed that the house’s days are num­bered.

“It has reached the stage where it can’t re­al­ly be saved,” he said.

“It’s be­come un­safe, and we’ll prob­a­bly have to de­mol­ish it be­fore the end of the year.”

The house re­mained oc­cu­pied un­til about three years ago, when Sad­hu’s daugh­ter, In­drat­tie Sew­dass—the last fam­i­ly mem­ber liv­ing there—died.

For Narvin, how­ev­er, the build­ing rep­re­sents far more than tim­ber and con­crete.

“My fa­ther grew up here. My grand­fa­ther lived here. This is where our fam­i­ly sto­ry be­gan.”

Al­though the house may soon dis­ap­pear, Narvin be­lieves his grand­fa­ther’s lega­cy will en­dure.

“Peo­ple still talk about him,” he said.

The statue of Sewdass Sadhu in the carpark of the temple.

Shastri Boodan

“We even had a pun­dit from In­dia who want­ed to see my grand­fa­ther’s let­ters and doc­u­ments. Peo­ple are still fas­ci­nat­ed by what he achieved.”

A short dis­tance from the tem­ple lies Sad­hu’s tomb at the Wa­ter­loo Cre­ma­tion Site. Con­trary to pop­u­lar be­lief, Sad­hu was buried there rather than cre­mat­ed.

Narvin hopes to re­store the gravesite and in­stall a com­mem­o­ra­tive plaque de­tail­ing his grand­fa­ther’s re­mark­able life.

“I want peo­ple to know the sto­ry be­hind the Tem­ple in the Sea,” he said.

For res­i­dents, Wa­ter­loo’s sto­ry ex­tends well be­yond its fa­mous tem­ple.

The jour­ney be­gins at the Freeport Over­pass be­fore wind­ing west through Bank Vil­lage, St Mary’s Junc­tion and Jer­ry Junc­tion to­wards the Gulf of Paria.

De­spite at­tract­ing thou­sands of vis­i­tors each year, many res­i­dents be­lieve the com­mu­ni­ty has yet to re­alise its full tourism po­ten­tial.

Sasha Mo­hammed, who op­er­ates a sand­wich stall op­po­site Jer­ry Junc­tion, be­lieves in­vest­ment is long over­due.

“This area is filled with tourist po­ten­tial,” she said.

“We need the in­fra­struc­ture to match it and cre­ate op­por­tu­ni­ties for young peo­ple.”

Out­side the In­di­an Caribbean Mu­se­um, Bevon Per­sad and his daugh­ter, Tiffany, have sold home­made pies and pholourie to vis­i­tors for years.

“Max­is full of tourists and school­child­ren come here all the time,” Per­sad said. “But we need bet­ter roads, drainage and fa­cil­i­ties if Wa­ter­loo is go­ing to be­come the tourism des­ti­na­tion it de­serves to be.”

Boats at low tide in the Gulf of Paria at the Temple in the Sea, Waterloo.

Shastri Boodan

A com­mu­ni­ty rich in cul­ture

Wa­ter­loo has long been a cra­dle of In­do-Trinida­di­an cul­ture.

It is home to cel­e­brat­ed chut­ney and clas­si­cal singer Rakesh Yankaran, whose fam­i­ly has be­come syn­ony­mous with In­di­an mu­sic in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“The cul­ture here is very rich,” Yankaran said.

He not­ed that the per­ma­nent stage on Waya­by Road hosts an­nu­al Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions, re­flect­ing the com­mu­ni­ty’s unique blend of cul­tur­al tra­di­tions.

Like many res­i­dents, Yankaran be­lieves Wa­ter­loo de­serves greater recog­ni­tion with­in the coun­try’s do­mes­tic tourism strat­e­gy.

Near­by, vis­i­tors can al­so ex­plore the In­di­an Caribbean Mu­se­um, which chron­i­cles the his­to­ry of In­di­an in­den­ture­ship, and the Sri Dat­ta­treya Yo­ga Cen­tre in Or­ange Field, home to the tow­er­ing 85-foot Hanu­man Mur­ti—one of the tallest stat­ues of the Hin­du de­ity out­side In­dia.

Pie girl Tiffany Persad in Waterloo.

Shastri Boodan

Echoes of a thriv­ing town

Coun­cil­lor Dubraj Per­sad says Wa­ter­loo was once among cen­tral Trinidad’s busiest com­mu­ni­ties.

“There was a time when the rail­way stopped at Waya­by Road,” he said, point­ing to the his­toric post of­fice that still stands to­day.

“There was a cin­e­ma here. Lever Broth­ers had a fac­to­ry here. Wa­ter­loo was a thriv­ing town.”

But when the rail­way was dis­man­tled, pros­per­i­ty grad­u­al­ly shift­ed north to Ch­agua­nas as the high­way net­work ex­pand­ed.

Per­sad be­lieves im­proved in­fra­struc­ture could once again trans­form Wa­ter­loo in­to a vi­brant her­itage des­ti­na­tion.

For now, the Tem­ple in the Sea re­mains the com­mu­ni­ty’s defin­ing land­mark.

Built not with wealth, ma­chin­ery or gov­ern­ment fund­ing, but through decades of de­ter­mi­na­tion, sac­ri­fice and faith, it con­tin­ues to in­spire all who cross the cause­way.

Its foun­da­tions rest not on­ly on stone re­claimed from the sea, but al­so on the ex­tra­or­di­nary re­solve of one man who re­fused to let his be­liefs be washed away.

The historical post office at Wayaby Road.

Shastri Boodan

10 facts about Wa­ter­loo

Coastal Lo­ca­tion: Wa­ter­loo is a coastal vil­lage lo­cat­ed on the west­ern side of Trinidad, bor­der­ing the Gulf of Paria with­in the Cou­va-Tabaquite-Tal­paro re­gion.

Sug­ar Es­tate Her­itage: The vil­lage has a more than 160-year his­to­ry tied to agri­cul­ture, specif­i­cal­ly op­er­at­ing as a ma­jor sug­ar plan­ta­tion (Wa­ter­loo Es­tates) dur­ing the colo­nial era.

The Tem­ple in the Sea: Wa­ter­loo is glob­al­ly fa­mous for the Sew­dass Sad­hu Shi­va Mandir, an off­shore Hin­du wor­ship cen­tre wide­ly known as the “Tem­ple in the Sea.”

An Act of De­fi­ance: The tem­ple was built in the ocean be­cause the orig­i­nal 1947 land-based struc­ture was de­mol­ished by the Tate and Lyle sug­ar com­pa­ny, which owned the es­tate land. Build­ing it in the sea freed the cre­ator from need­ing state or pri­vate land per­mis­sions.

Sin­gle-Hand­ed Con­struc­tion: The tem­ple’s foun­da­tion was built sin­gle-hand­ed­ly by Sew­dass Sad­hu, an In­di­an in­den­tured labour­er who spent over 20 years trans­port­ing stones, ce­ment, and sand in two buck­ets on his bi­cy­cle.

The 85-foot Hanuman murti at the Dattatreya Temple, Waterloo.

Shastri Boodan

Gov­ern­ment Recog­ni­tion: Af­ter Sad­hu’s death, the tem­ple be­gan to de­te­ri­o­rate. In 1994, the Trinida­di­an gov­ern­ment stepped in to fin­ish the struc­ture and add a pedes­tri­an pier to com­mem­o­rate the 150th an­niver­sary of the ar­rival of In­di­ans to the coun­try.

Ar­chi­tec­tur­al De­sign: The com­plet­ed tem­ple is a colour­ful, oc­tag­o­nal-shaped struc­ture that hous­es rev­er­ent mur­tis (stat­ues) of Hin­du deities, in­clud­ing Lord Hanu­man, Lord Ganesh, Lord Shi­va, and Moth­er Dur­ga.

Tidal Land­scape: The calm wa­ters of the Gulf of Paria in Wa­ter­loo ex­pe­ri­ence sig­nif­i­cant tidal shifts. Dur­ing high tide, the tem­ple ap­pears to float, while low tide re­veals the ex­pan­sive mud flats sur­round­ing it.

In­di­an Caribbean Mu­se­um: Wa­ter­loo is al­so home to the In­di­an Caribbean Mu­se­um of Trinidad and To­ba­go, a ded­i­cat­ed in­sti­tu­tion that pre­serves the his­to­ry, arte­facts, and her­itage of East In­di­an in­den­tured labour­ers in the Caribbean.

A Cen­tre of Spir­i­tu­al­i­ty: The vil­lage is re­gard­ed by his­to­ri­ans and lo­cals as a vi­tal hub of In­di­an spir­i­tu­al­i­ty in the Caribbean, at­tract­ing devo­tees, pil­grims, and in­ter­na­tion­al tourists year-round.

Flags, or jhandis, placed outside in the mud flats at the Temple in the Sea.

Shastri Boodan