Year 10 pupils had a fantastic experience visiting the beautiful Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, in Neasden as part of their Hinduism curriculum.
They were greeted and given ‘a peaceful auspicious’ Hindu welcome into the venue. The Mandir is Europe’s first traditional Hindu temple and its beauty is truly breath taking. All the pupils watched the documentary about its construction, from 5,000 tonnes of marble with great interest. Comprising of 26,300 hand carved pieces, assembled like a jigsaw, it took only 3 years to build. The construction teachers and pupils on the trip, were amazed to learn that all the foundations were laid in 3 days. We were shown the Grand Haveli Foyer and the exquisite Inner Sanctum. We all found the Understanding Hinduism Exhibition fantastic, pupils particularly enjoying the art work, symbols and statues depicting Hindu stories they had learnt in class.
Pupils were then taken to a restaurant, where they ordered lunch, within a given budget. The food was delicious, with chicken biriyani and butter naan bread proving most popular. Pupil behaviour and engagement was excellent throughout the whole trip.
One pupil commented: ‘The temple is enormous, I can’t believe it only took only about 3 years to complete the whole building and that all of the foundations were laid in 3 days, that is unbelievable.’