Temple Opening Hours:
Saturday to Thursday : 9am - 10pm
Friday : 9am - 11pm

Daily Services:
10am, 12noon, 5pm & 8pm



THE TEMPLE HISTORY:

In 1979, a few Sri Lankan Hindu Saivite families, living in and around Wimbledon, began to meet together at a local hall to worship Lord Ghanapathy. They had a single statue of Lord Ganesha, hired a priest to conduct the service, and began regular Friday worship, gaining spiritual comfort that helped them to relive the happy times of religious harmony that they had once shared in their homeland. As the months went by, more and more devotees began to attend the service, and the need for a permanent, sanctified building, dedicated to Hindu worship, became a priority.

In 1980, one of the families found and bought a property in Wimbledon and offered it for community worship, and thus the Shree Ghanapathy Temple was born. It began life as an abandoned and dilapidated Christian Church, then an under-used Community Centre and, within a year, was transformed internally to become a Hindu Temple. It had its Maha Kumbabishekam in September 1981, and became the first ever consecrated Hindu Temple in Europe. The adjoining church hall was converted into a Sai Mandir - the first of it's kind in the U.K., and thus began a union of ancient and modern Hinduism that has grown from strength to strength over the past 19 years.

The Temple met with much opposition at the beginning, from the local community and, unfortunately, from certain members of our own community! The council attempted to close the Temple down on the very day of the Maha Kumbabishekam and thus began a legal battle that continued to the High Courts and beyond. However Lord Ghanapathy heard our prayers and protected his Temple and devotees. We won the legal battle and were allowed to continue our worship without restriction.

Over the next few years, we struggled to build bridges with the local community, and we did this through their children! The ILEA recommended us as the best Temple to visit to learn about Hinduism and, every year, over 3000 children and teachers from local schools would visit the Temple to learn about Hinduism, about our customs and traditions, and to dispel any fears or misconceptions they might have about us and our faith. The children educated their parents and gradually the local community grew to accept us.

The Sai Mandir also gave invaluable assistance by their extensive voluntary work within the local community and, because of their efforts, the Temple became known for it's extensive charitable and multi-faith work within the London Borough of Merton.

From its first service in 1981, the Temple has grown and adapted to the changing needs of the increasing number of devotees who came to pray at the Temple. We began with just traditional ritualistic worship and one resident priest. This increased to daily services, with the Temple being open from 8am to 10pm every day. We now have 4 permanent priests, including a "Saiva Kurukkal" who performs funeral services and associated ceremonies.

We noticed that a large proportion of the devotees were parents with young children, struggling to teach their children about our rich culture and heritage, fearing that they would be lost in the more materialistic society of the west. We therefore began religious music and religious instruction classes at the Temple, giving our facilities free to the teachers, yet ensuring that they kept their fees to the bare minimum, so that all would be able to afford to educate their children in our traditional music and dance.

Over the years, we have seen many of these young children blossom into exceptional dancers, singers and instrumentalists, and our greatest joy was when one of our first students in Bharathanatyam came back to the Temple to teach dancing herself, fulfilling our hopes and dreams for our culture to be carried forward to future generations.


Shree Ganapathy :
The main deity in the Shree Ghanapathy Temple is Lord Ganesha. Everything in Hinduism begins with the worship of Him. With an elephant head and human form, He represents the niversality of creation. All creation is said to begin with Sound, and he is that first Sound OM or Pranava in which mantras are born. When Shakthi (Energy) meets Shiva (Matter) both Ganesha (Sound) and Lord Skanda (Light) are born. This is the scientific basis of this part of Hinduism.

In Hindu mythology, Lord Ganesha is the first son of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathi (a form of Universal Mother). By worshipping Lord Ganesha, a Hindu seeks Divine support for achieving success in one's endeavours in the physical world and for attaining progress thereafter. Success in all religious acts, as well as worldly affairs, is the goal of humans. Therefore, Hindus worship Ganesha to seek God's blessings before undertaking such activities. For this reason, Lord Ganesha is worshipped at the beginning of all religious functions and ceremonies.