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KAUAI, HAWAII, USA, November 13, 2001: Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, one of Hinduism's foremost spiritual teachers, a prolific author and publisher of Hinduism Today magazine, passed away today at age 74 at his ashram home on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, USA....
2001, August 1:
Granite Temple Assembly
Begins on Kauai
Kauai, Hawaii, July 22, 2001: Four hundred island residents including Mayor Maryanne Kusaka got their first experience of the ancient Indian art of stone carving at the Iraivan temple open house today. Seven master carvers, or "silpis" arrived a few weeks ago to begin assembling the temple located at Kauai's Hindu monastery in Wailua Homesteads. It is the first all-stone temple ever built in the Western Hemisphere, and one of the few built anywhere in the last century entirely of intricately carved granite.
September 1, 1999
Island Temple Foundation Pour Part 1
-- The General Story
In August the 1000-cubic-yard foundation of the San Marga Iraivan Temple was completed on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, USA. The massive base for the temple was made from technologically innovative "high volume fly ash concrete." It's success has substantial implications for the construction industry, and even the environment. The temple itself, which is being hard carved now in Bangalore, India, will be shipped to Kauai beginning next year to become the first all-stone temple ever built in the West. International guests, island residents, monastic ashram residents and members of the Saiva Siddhanta Church all gathered in high celebration to witness the event.
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September 1, 1999
Island Temple Foundation Pour
Part 2-An Advancement in Concrete Technology
Iraivan Temple is a pioneering project, not only in ancient granite stone carving, but in modern concrete technology--specifically "high volume fly ash" concrete. It embodied principals that Dr. Mehta, professor of engineering science at the University of California at Berkeley for the past 30 years and world expert on durable concrete technology. He knew it would work on paper, but had never been given the opportunity to prove. He and his colleague, W.S. Langley of Nova Scotia, Canada, leapt at the chance to collaborate on the design of the temple's 1,000-year foundation, and in the process very likely changed the construction industry forever.
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August 29, 1999
Garden Island Newspaper
Report on the Foundation
Iraivan Temple foundation has been poured and will last 1,000 years. The unique 1000 yard pour contains no rebar and a waste product called fly ash that makes the concrete even stronger, and without cracks. Professor Kumar Mehta, a Hindu and professor at the University of California at Berkeley, is the world's expert in concrete. He designed the mixture. Reproduced from The Garden Island newspaper.
Click here for photos, captions and high resolution images and the press release text
See also Background Information.
