All about Hawaii’s Iraivan Shiva Temple with 320kg Crystal Lingam, Chola-style Architecture, Musical Pillars

Temples – sacred places where faith in the divine flourishes and artistic creativity finds expression. Many Hindu temples in India are known to have existed since time immemorial, yet the genius of ancient Indians as evidenced in the design and architecture of these temples leaves us baffled to this day. Perhaps the fact that their painstaking perfection was unaided by any sort of advanced equipment known today, makes their creation even more charismatic.

Thousands of miles away from India and its great architectural heritage; Hawaii is home to a mighty Lord Shiva temple on the serene islands of Kauai. Untouched by modern-age construction technology and machinery, the San Marga Iraivan Temple of Hawaii is akin to ancient stone temples of India. It is said to be North America’s first temple architecture of white granite stone chiseled and carved with traditional hand-held tools preserving the ancient stone carving techniques in the process.

Hawaii Iraivan Temple: Inspired by millennia-old Chola Architecture 

Iraivan Temple, whose foundation stone was laid in 1991, has taken the shape of a beautiful Chola-style temple with architectural grandeur and intricate carvings over more than two decades. The 4-foot-thick foundation bearing this 3.2 million pound temple is made of a crack-free formula involving coal ash. The temple is designed with great precision of art, science and engineering so that it lasts one thousand years in the seismically active region of Hawaii. Moreover, the spacing within the temple, as guided by Vaastu Shastra, elevates the vibration of the place and you cannot help but feel mystified here.

Musical Pillars & Other Architectural Highlights

Elaborate carvings, sacred motifs, and amazing structures meet your eye at this temple. Two massive elephant sculptures stand at the entrance. As you go further, you can see a large stone bell, long stone chains, finely carved pillars, eight stone lion pillars that come with a rotatable stone ball in their mouth.

Huge sandalwood doors lead the way to the main sanctum, where 108 bronze statues of Nataraja in various dance positions are placed in dimly lit shelves surrounding the main Shiva lingam. One of the many stunning features of Hawaii’s Iraivan Temple is its two “musical pillars” encompassing 16 carved rods that produce classical Indian musical tones when gently struck with a mallet.

Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami and his vision of Iraivan Temple    

The seeds of Iraivan temple in Hawaii were sown in 1975 when American Hindu guru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami visioned Lord Shiva walking along the place where the temple sits today. This vision inspired his decision to transform the place into a pilgrimage site for Shiva devotees from across the world. He named the temple after an old Tamil word, Iraivan, meaning, “He who is worshiped.”

Soon, the directions were in place. The temple has been hand-built following the traditional temple architecture principles mentioned in Agama Shastra (an ancient Sanskrit text with guidelines for temple construction, worship, etc) and designed in such a way that it survives 1000 years or more. The design of San Marga Iraivan Temple, Hawaii, is credited to V. Ganapati Sthapati.

Also Read: This temple in USA to get 10 millions lingams from India

Construction began in the 1990s. Required amounts of stone were primarily quarried in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu regions and the handcrafting of white granite stones was done by 70 local sculptors in Bengaluru, the capital of Karnataka. More than 4000+ carved stones were transported from Bengaluru to USA’s Kauai temple monastery, where craftsmen assembled them block by block.

Legend of Iraivan Temple’s 700-pound Shiva Lingam

Behind the intricately carved sandalwood doors of Hawaii’s Iraivan Temple is a rare 700-pound Shiva Lingam of quartz crystal (sphatik). Estimated to be 50 million years old, this sphatik lingam represents sky – one of the five elements called pancha bhuta. Legend has it that this sacred shiva lingam was found enclosed in mud, in its exact form and shape, by Sivaya Subramuniyaswami during his quest for it in Arkansas following his dream. This naturally formed lingam is anything unlike rock-cut structures created for worshiping purposes at temples.

This article is part of the series – Hidden Gems of America – by Indian Eagle, the most trusted travel-booking partner of Indians and Americans. Travel Beats, a subsidiary of Indian Eagle, is a one-stop portal for US-India travel news, Indian Diaspora stories, and US visa and immigration updates. Subscribe to Travel Beats for more such stories.

Location of Iraivan Temple in Hawaii

The temple is a part of Kauai Aadheenam (Hindu Monastery), a 458-acre temple-monastery complex located on Hawaii’s Garden Island, i.e. Kauai. This vast property sprawls next to the serene Wailua River. As you approach the Wailua River, you can see the shimmering golden towers of Iraivan Temple rising against the backdrop of the lush green Mount Waialeale. The distance between this Hindu temple in Kauai and Mount Waialeale is around 8 km.

Hawaii’s Iraivan Temple is considered one of the most elaborate Hindu temples ever created in USA. Travelers are allowed to take a tour of Kauai Aadheenam and its temple. You can walk along the serene trails weaving through the monastery’s forests, unwind by a beautiful pond, and explore the architecture of this beautiful temple, which transports you back to ancient India’s Chola era when temple architecture flourished to great heights.