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Students of art history are accustomed to field trips to art museums to view the art that has been preserved through the ages.
They are used to old art.
Melia Belli's Asian Art History class, however, found themselves visiting a very contemporary work of art, a modern Hindu Temple, tucked into the gentle rolling canyons of Calabasas.
After a lecture covering the pantheon of Hindu gods (the numerous incarnations of Brahma, Vishnu and Krishna), students took themselves for a long drive to Las Virgenes Canyon Road to the Venkateswara Temple in Malibu.
On Sunday, Sept. 16, several Chaffey students drove into the Temple parking lot just as members of the temple were arriving. The women were wearing bright silk saris and everyone removed their shoes before entering the temple, some even washing their feet at an outside fountain provided for just such ritual cleansing.
Inside, the main temple housed a likeness of the deity Sri Venkateswara (a form of Vishnu) and also smaller temples housing sculptures of other deities. Music was playing and offerings of food had been left to call to the deities.
Begun in l981, the temple hides among the shrubbery until one turns from busy Las Virgenes Road onto Las Virgenes Canyon Road. There, suddenly appearing above the thick oak trees, are towers covered with beautifully carved sculptures depicting the many deities in Hindu belief. It is the most authentic Hindu Temple in the western hemisphere.
The last of the construction is almost complete including the exquisite plaster sculpture that covers the walls, gates and buildings of the complex.
For more information, visit www.geocities.com/malibutemple.
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