Global Stories · Canada

The Granite Marvel of Richmond Hill

← Back to Global Stories A roadside sign for the Ganesha Temple of the Hindu Temple Society of Canada in Richmond Hill, Ontario. Photo: Kanatonian / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

In Richmond Hill, Ontario, the Hindu Temple Society of Canada undertook a remarkable, decades-long project to build what is recognized as the largest stone Hindu temple in North America — a project that began, fittingly, with the installation of Shree Ganesh.

A Project Spanning Generations

Chartered in 1973, the Hindu Temple Society of Canada began construction in 1975 with the installation of a Ganesha murti, and the temple's grand altar towers were not completed until 2001 — a building effort spanning over a quarter century, carried forward by a community determined to see it through.

Built According to Ancient Tradition

Constructed following the Agama Shastras, the traditional Hindu scriptures governing temple architecture and consecration, the temple represents a serious, sustained commitment to authentic religious construction, undertaken far from India by a community determined to do it properly.

What This Temple Reveals

That this ambitious, generations-long project began specifically with Shree Ganesh's own installation reflects, on a truly monumental scale, the same principle followed by every smaller shrine in this collection — that any great undertaking rightly begins with him.