Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Cardiff, is a Swaminarayan temple located in the Grangetown area of Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. It is the first and largest Hindu temple in Wales and comes under the NarNarayan Dev Gadi of the Swaminarayan Sampraday.

It is the first Swaminarayan temple in Wales, purchased in 1979 and opened in 1982. At the time, the temple was located in a converted synagogue. In 1993, it was moved across the road from the original temple site to the current site, replacing an old Irish club. Between 2005 and 2007, the temple underwent major refurbishment work, at the cost of £700,000. This included installation of new marble idols in the temple, three white stone spires (the first on a Hindu temple in Wales), an exterior in the style of a traditional Hindu temple and new classrooms and living quarters. The three spires were placed above three new altars inside the building – one for women, one for men, and one mixed. Half the original temple was brought down, and replaced. During this period, services took place in a temporary room downstairs while work was under way. Most of the funds for the refurbishment came from donations within the community. (Wikipedia source:) Wales is home to one of the UK’s most beautiful Hindu temples, located in Merches Place, Cardiff.

Walking towards the temple, down streets lined with typical nineteenth-century terraced housing, your eye is drawn to the exotic sight of three white spires rising high above the surrounding rooftops. These gold-topped spires (called shikars) are typical of north Indian temple architecture and they sit above the shrines (sinhashan) at the heart of the temple. The word shikar, derived from shikhara, Sanskrit for ‘mountain peak’, represents mountains reaching to the heavens, a link between the infinity of the heavens and the mundane world below.Traditionally three spires or domes indicate that this is a major mandir – a word that is often translated as ‘temple’ but that really means ‘a place where humans and gods interact’. Worshippers visit the mandir regularly, first washing their hands in the entrance hall, then climbing the stairs and removing their shoes before entering the main hall. Here they prostrate themselves in front of the shrines as a sign of humility before standing to perform the ritual known as darshan, a word that literally translated means ‘to see’ or ‘to view’. Sai Giridhar, 2024. See the case-study in RCAHMW's From Migration to Resilience (2024).

This record was created by RCAHMW’s Welsh Asian Heritage Project (2023–24), funded by the Welsh Government’s Anti-racist Wales Action Plan.

Sources:

(1) RCAHMW blog by Christyopher Catling: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shri_Swaminarayan_Mandir,_Cardiff (2) Perminder Dhillon & Radha Patel et al., O Fudo i Wydnwch: Profiadau Asiaid Cymru / From Migration to Resilience: Welsh Asian Experiences (RCAHMW: 2024), pp. 30-31.

Marked by three white stone spires in the style of a traditional Hindu temple, each marking an altar inside the building, the Shree Swaminarayan Mandir temple was the first Swaminarayan temple in Wales. Opened in 1982, it acquired its distinctive appearance following major refurbishment work between 2005 and 2007. The First Minister for Wales, Rhodri Morgan, visited the temple in 2008 to celebrate Diwali.

Recorded during RCAHMW aerial reconnaissance.

T. Driver, RCAHMW 2011