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Center Name: | Hindu Bhavan |
| Address: | 309 Aviation Parkway
Morrisville, North Carolina 27560
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| Phone Number: | (919) 481-2574
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| Website: |
www.hsnc.org
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| Contact Names and Phone Numbers: | Dr. G.D. Sharma
(919) 851-0225 |
| Date Hindu Bhavan Opened: | 20 December 1986 |
| Religious Leader: | Dr. G. D. Sharma
Volunteer Priest |
| Lay Leader: | Saroj Sharma
President, Hindu Society of North Carolina |
| Community Size: | Paid membership - 900 families
Participants - 1600 families |
| Ethnic Composition: |
The ethnicity of the participants at the Bhavan is predominantly South Asian, with members from the various regions across South Asia, from Tamil Nadu and Kerala to Sindh, Bengal, and Nepal. A few of the participants are not ethnically South Asian, though most of these are married to someone whose ethnicity is South Asian. In fact, the community has, from the beginning, renounced efforts to convert non-Hindus. |
| Affiliation with Other Communities/Organizations: | The parent organization for the Hindu Bhavan is the Hindu Society of North Carolina, founded in 1976. The Jain Study Center of North Carolina also uses the facilities and has installed an image of Mahavir Jain alongside the Hindu deities. Likewise, numerous regional associations, including the Triangle Gujarati Association, Maharashtran Mandal, Hindi Vikas Mandal, and the Bengali Samaj, hold functions at the Bhavan.
Other local South Asian religious sites include the Sri Venkateswara Temple of Cary, whose members are typically also active in the Hindu Society of North Carolina, 2 Sikh gurdwaras in Durham, an Islamic Center in Raleigh and another mosque in Durham. A few families from the gurdwaras and the mosques come to the Bhavan occasionally for special events. |
Activities
Temple hours - 7 - 11 am, 5 - 9 pm Monday - Friday
7 am - 8 pm Saturday, Sunday, and holidays
Regular activities include
Daily rituals and aarti - every morning and evening
Language classes for children - Sunday mornings
Shiv Mahima Stotra - Monday evenings
Hanuman Chalisa and Ramayan Path - Tuesday evenings
Mahavir Jain puja - Saturday mornings
Various bhajan groups and study groups meet monthly as well.
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| History
A group of approximately twenty Hindu families in the Raleigh, North Carolina, area organized the Hindu Society of North Carolina in 1976 in order to develop a community for Hindus, conduct prayers and rituals together, and teach their children about their Hindu heritage. Dr. G. D. Sharma, whose home was the site for the first Hindu rituals in the area, led the group and has served as the volunteer priest for the community. They met in community halls, homes, and other temporary locations until 1980 when they purchased a former Jehovah’s Witnesses church on Ashe Avenue in Raleigh. As the community grew and that first location became too small, they purchased land in Morrisville, a nearby town, and built the Hindu Bhavan, which opened on the 20th of December 1986. In 1999, they broke ground for a social hall behind the Bhavan that will provide additional space for the community, which continues to grow rapidly. They plan to open the new building in July 2000.
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