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Home / Built Environment, Volume 30, Number 1

(Re)making Hindu Sacred Places in Northern California

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Author: Mehta, Reena

Source: Built Environment, Volume 30, Number 1, 1 March 2004, pp. 45-59(15)

Publisher: Alexandrine Press

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2148/benv.30.1.45.54326

The 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act transformed the American urban landscape in ways as never before. Hindus from India arrived in large numbers and concentrated primarily in California, Texas, New York, New Jersey and Illinois. Hindu temples began to spread across the urban and rural landscape of the United States. Many of these have been created from existing built forms: office buildings, churches and warehouses. This paper examines the symbolic meanings and cultural practices of three converted sacred spaces located in different regions of the Bay Area in Northern California. Each example is unique in terms of its location and conversion. Through this analysis an understanding of the presence of new forms of socio-cultural and religious practices of a diasporic community will be developed.

Document Type: Research Article

Publication date: 01 March 2004

More about this publication?

  • Built Environment is published quarterly in March, June, September and December. With an emphasis on crossing disciplinary boundaries and providing global perspective, each issue focuses on a single subject of contemporary interest to practitioners, academics and students working in a wide range of disciplines. Issues are guest-edited by established international experts who not only commission contributions, but also oversee the peer-reviewing process in collaboration with the Editors.

    Subject areas include: architecture; conservation; economic development; environmental planning; health; housing; regeneration; social issues; spatial planning; sustainability; urban design; and transport. All issues include reviews of recent publications.

    The journal is abstracted in Geo Abstracts, Sage Urban Studies Abstracts, and Journal of Planning Literature, and is indexed in the Avery Index to Architectural Publications.

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