Out in the middle of the Iowa countryside, perhaps the last thing you might expect to see is a large. brilliant, white Hindu Temple, but about six miles south of Madrid, Iowa along the west side of the highway, there it is!
On this day it was flooded with bright morning light, and it was as if the temple was radiating as I pulled up to it for these photos. All of them were shot from my car using a telephoto lens. I have been inside on one previous occasion, and if the priest is there, the door is open and you just enter, checking with him first, as he will ask you to remove your hat and shoes, and remind you that NO photos can be taken inside.
What is inside a large rectangular chamber are several statues that resemble the ones on the tower in these photos. I do not know much about the Hindu religion and how it is practiced in a temple, but it appears worshipers just go there on their own at various times and go from one statue to another in a meditative state, and when they have been to all of them, they quietly leave.
If you have some Hindu friends you might ask them for a better understanding. It is worth the drive down the road from Madrid to see this structure, and it glows best in morning light, and would be silhouetted at sunset, which is something I have not tried.
1 comment:
Thank you for sharing. I keep hoping that I will hear of a public tour and lecture of this Temple of the Prairies.
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