The Temple in the Sea, also known as the Siewdass Sadhu mandir, is a

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

mandir A Hindu temple, or ''mandir'' or ''koil'' in Indian languages, is a house, seat and body of divinity for Hindus. It is a structure designed to bring human beings and gods together through worship, sacrifice, and devotion.; Quote: "The Hind ...

in Waterloo,

Carapichaima Carapichaima is a town in central Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago. Communities and villages in Carapichaima include Orangefield, Waterloo, Brickfield, and Korea Village. Name The name Carapichaima is said to be derived from the native Amerindian ...

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

. Sewdass Sadhu constructed the original

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

in the Gulf of Paria in 1952. The temple was reconstructed by Randal Rampersad and reopened in 1995.

History

Between 1845 and 1917, through the establishment of a labour indentured system, many Indians migrated to

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

and worked as

indentured labourer Indentured servitude is a form of Work (human activity), labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract, called an "indenture", may be entered "voluntarily" for purported eventual compensa ...

s in plantation sites across the country. In the 1930s, Sewdass Sadhu, an indentured labourer, built a small temple on an estate owned by The Tate and Lyle Sugar Company by facing the Gulf of Paria. Five years later, the estate management requested Sadhu to remove the temple because it was not his land, but he refused. Sadhu was sent to

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

for 14 days and fined 100 pounds for refusing to remove the temple and it destroyed. After his release from prison, Sadhu built the temple with the belief that colonial powers had no ownership of the sea. In 1947, Sadhu began riding a bicycle to transport stones, cement, and sand in his bag from the island and unloaded them at the coast of the island to extend the island borders offshore. After the creation of the rocky pathway, Sadhu built another temple in the Gulf of Paria. The rocky pathway into the gulf and the temple were completed in 1952.

Sewdass Sadhu

Sewdass Sadhu was born in 1904 and was the original builder of the

in the sea. He was the son of Boodhram and Bissoondayia, indentured labourers at the Waterloo Sugar Estate in

. Sadhu traveled to

on the

SS Mutlah SS ''Mutlah'' was a 3,393-ton steamship built for the Nourse Line in 1907 by Charles Connell & Company Limited, Glasgow, Scotland. She disappeared along with her crew of 40 after sending a distress call on 29 December 1923 while sailing in the Me ...

when he was 4 years old. He died in 1970.

Reconstruction

After Sadhu's death in 1970, the temple deteriorated in the sea through high tides and a lack of maintenance from people.{{Cite web , last=Sahu , first=Arun Kumar , date=27 December 2020 , title=Trinidad & Tobago Diary Part II: Land Of 'Temple In The Sea' , url=https://odishabytes.com/trinidad-tobago-diary-land-of-temple-in-the-sea/ , url-status=live , website=DishaBytes The Hindu Prachar Kendra started to repair the land connecting the island to the temple. This effort was continued, and the temple was reconstructed and opened in 1995 under the direction of Randal Rampersad, a third generation Trinidadian of indentured Indian ancestry. The temple was opened in 1995 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the first arrival of indentured labourers from India. Remnants of the original temple in the sea were used to create the roof of a

Shiva Shiva (; sa, शिव, lit=The Auspicious One, Śiva ), also known as Mahadeva (; ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐ, or Hara, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hindu ...

temple that now stands in the same spot as the temple built by Sadhu. The reconstructed temple is 100 yards further in the sea than the original temple that Sadhu built.

Deities

The Idols of

Ganesha Ganesha ( sa, गणेश, ), also known as Ganapati, Vinayaka, and Pillaiyar, is one of the best-known and most worshipped deities in the Hindu pantheon and is the Supreme God in Ganapatya sect. His image is found throughout India. Hindu d ...

Hanuman Hanuman (; sa, हनुमान, ), also called Anjaneya (), is a Hindu god and a divine '' vanara'' companion of the god Rama. Hanuman is one of the central characters of the Hindu epic ''Ramayana''. He is an ardent devotee of Rama and on ...

Durga Durga ( sa, दुर्गा, ) is a major Hindu goddess, worshipped as a principal aspect of the mother goddess Mahadevi. She is associated with protection, strength, motherhood, destruction, and wars. Durga's legend centres around co ...

, and

Krishna Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is one ...

are consecrated in the temple.

References

Religious buildings and structures in Trinidad and Tobago Shiva temples Hindu temples in Trinidad and Tobago