Hindu Temple Limited

Nebraska Wesleyan University

Jeff Clinger, Researcher

A History of Hindu Temple Limited

Sign of the Omaha Hindu Temple (Fall 2001)

The Hindu temple of Omaha has been serving members of the Hindu faith from the Omaha, Lincoln, and surrounding areas since 1993.  The history of Hindu community in Nebraska dates back to the early 1970's when engineers and their families immigrated from India to the Omaha area.  These Hindu immigrants initially conducted the practices of their faith in their own homes.  In the mid 1970's, there was a second wave of immigrants from India to the Lincoln and Omaha area. A majority of these men and women were professionally trained, often as medical doctors.  During the past five years, the Hindu community in the Lincoln and Omaha area has continued to grow and these recent Hindu immigrants moving to Lincoln and Omaha are commonly employed in the computer and software industry.

In the early 1990’s, a small group of people who had been meeting in each other's homes decided it was time to organize a central place for Hindu community worship.  One evening, 13 members of the community signed their names on a napkin pledging themselves to build a temple for the Hindu community in the Omaha and Lincoln area.  In November of 1993, the community purchased the building they worship in today and Sree Nair was named the first president of the temple. 

When asked about struggles the community faced in trying to organize a temple, current temple president, V.T. Ramakrishnan said, “The problems we had were the same as any other religious organization. We’ve always struggled with having enough   volunteers and enough money.”  Over the past several years the temple has worked to raise money and they are now in the middle of construction of a traditional Hindu temple in Omaha.

South Side of Temple (Fall 2001)	North Side of Temple (Fall 2001)

Demographics

Approximately 98% of the membership of the Hindu Temple in Omaha is of Indian descent and the remaining 2% of the population are primarily Nepalese.  A significant number of members are employed in medicine, engineering, and computers.  Because Lincoln and Omaha house the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and Creighton University’s Medical center, there are also a number of Hindu students who worship in the community while pursuing their degrees. 

Description of the Center

The outside of the temple is divided into two distinct halves.  On one side is the new construction that will be a traditional Indian Hindu temple.  The other half is the temple’s social hall and library.  While the temple is under construction, the library has been converted into the prayer hall for puja.  Behind the library is a room rented out by people of the Omaha community where, for example, Tai Chi classes are held weekly.  To the side of the social hall is a pleasant kitchen area used by the temple to prepare community meals or for any catering for receptions. When the community first purchased the building in 1993 it was the gutted out remains of what had been several restaurants.The temple’s social hall is used by the Indian Association of Nebraska and is also rented out to the public for special events.  The money that has been raised by renting the hall out is going toward the construction of the temple.

Center Activities

There are several different services that the temple offers the community.  On Saturday and Sunday the temple is open from 10:30 a.m.-1 p.m. and puja begins at 10:30 a.m..  On Sundays at 11 a.m., Sunday School is held for students aged 6-12.  The temple is also plans to organize their 13-18 year olds into a youth group.  Kundalini Yoga Classes are also held at the temple from 6:15-7:45 p.m. on Thursdays.

The social hall also houses events for the community and for the Indian Association of Omaha such as speakers, musicians, and other cultural events. In addition to the events held at the temple the community publishes their Deepam newsletter four times a year.

From Left: Researcher Jeff Clinger, Nina Mote's mother, and Nina Mote, Public Relations Chair of the Omaha Hindu Temple (Fall 2001)

Cooperative relationships

As a community, the Hindu Temple has enjoyed a great deal of interaction with other religious traditions in the community.  They are members of the Lincoln Interfaith Council and they interact with other faith communities.  They are also involved in many different community service types of projects.  They hold a health fair every year, work with the AIDS foundation, speak at churches and schools about the Hindu faith and India, and last year held an interfaith fast for 48 hours during which members of the community fasted and prayed for earthquake victims in India.  Their efforts raised $35,000 for earthquake relief.

As a religious minority, what kind of obstacles or problems has the community encountered in Lincoln?
As a community, the Hindu Temple of Omaha believes they have not faced any major obstacles or problems.  President V.T. Ramakrishnan suggests that as individuals they sometimes face small problems on their own, but that, as a community, they have never dealt with anything that felt like a hate crime or hostile from the surrounding culture.  He said that there was one instance when someone broke into the temple and stole some money that was in a donation box, but he does not believe that this crime had anything to do with the fact that the community was Hindu.  He also feels the community is lucky because some cities do have problems with hate crimes against the Hindu community, but they have not experienced this.

Other

The public relations chair for the temple, Nina Mote, indicated that one offering of this temple to the community is the teaching of Sanskrit. Members of the temple work toteach young children Sanskrit, especially for prayers.  The children are also taught about the history of their Hindu faith and Indian culture. As Nina Mote states,"knowing about their culture allows the children to be proud to be an Indian when they are in school or with their friends."

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