Yesterday I went on a Faith & Cultural Awareness trip with work. It was a group trip organised through work and we visited a Muslim Mosque, a Hindu Mandir, a Sikh Gurdwara and an Orthodox Jewish Synagogue. The coach turned up late, which meant that we weren’t able to stay in some places as long as others.
Islam – visiting the Mosque
All women had to cover their hair before entering, but men did not. We all removed our shoes. Normally men and women are segregated in the Mosque, but for this trip we were allowed to see all areas of the temple, but as it turned out, if women wanted pray in a Mosque, they could in this one, but had to enter through the back door and pray in the basement. Prayers take place several times per day though the day and night. If one prayer time is missed the prayers must be said at the next session that say. Prayers always take place towards the direction of Mecca, and all adults should make a pilgrimage towards Mecca at least once during their lifetime.
All children, from around the time they can read enter after-school classes from 6pm until 8pm and learn the Koran by heart in Sanskrit writing, even if Arabic is not their original language, so that if the books were ever destroyed they would be able to re-create them without mistakes. This takes great dedication, but it also means that the Islamic community becomes very insular. It seemed sad in a way, the children don’t get much opportunity to mix with other children an people, and it sounded as if the children didn’t have much opportunity to just play.
Some Muslim representatives of the Mosque answered questions in an open session. The questions were not easy and the men answering the questions had to be very pragmatic at times, especially when answering questions about the political views that people hold at the moment – the suffering and conflict. Islams preach peace but also bravery in battle, and the readings are open, it’s like reading a sentence full of similes and trying to pick out the right meanings – which ones are they? The religion versus culture argument came into play frequently.
What would be interesting is to know where Judism and Islam separate, as they both focus on the Old Testament but are very different in their cultural approach.
Hinduism – visiting the Mandir
The Mandir was a great contrast to the Mosque, and was far more airy and light, a lot less oppressive. Faith was also combined with a great sense of fun.
What I found most surprising is when the president of the Mandir told us that Hindus have one God.
When you think about Hinduism you think about pantheons. Hinduism is a very old religion with many gods and goddesses, often separate, sometimes combined and with names which imply which gods they root from. These gods and goddesses are all representations of the aspects, the manifestations of one deity or power. Some see this deity with form, some see it without form.
I was quite taken by this because this is how I see various gods and godesses too.
The Hindus came across as very honorable people. They are lacto-vegetarian, eating products that derive from milk as well as a vegetarian diet. They don’t drink alcohol or take in caffine or anything they can get addicted to, but decaf is ok. They don’t wear leather and don’t permit leather in the temple. I’ve been told that some Hindus are more strict than others. They treat animals as their kin, their brothers. Most do not keep pets as it can turn out very expensive. If an animal falls ill, they must try to heal it with the best of medical knowledge rather than putting it down, even if it costs them a fortune. They must do the best that they can in honoring their animals. This goes some way to explaining the situation last summer in the news where a temple bull fell ill with Bovine TB and they worked hard to protect the bull from the government officials who wanted to take it away and kill it.
Offerings of food are left as gifts to these representations of the gods, and later on these offerings are given back to their worshipers as gifts from the gods. There is no waste. In the temple we visited there was a marble statue of their main representation of deity dressed in bright colours. Each day it is dressed in new clothes as an act of devotion. The jewelry is also changed, but less often and also depending on the occasion.
Women cover their hair in a Mandir. Traditionally men wear turbans, often the colour worn depicts different meanings but turbans are not compulsory. Shoes are removed before entering the temple. They visit the Mandir most evenings and sit in the same room, but enter from different doors and sit on separate sides of room obscured by screens.
The writings of Hinduism are also in Sanskrit symbols. The Swatstika is a Sanskrit glyph with associations of well-being and auspiciousness, the original meaning before it’s use by the Nazis obscured it.
Sikhism – visiting the Gurdwara
The Gurdwara was a new building conversion project that was part completed. The Sikh community were restoring a Baptist church for use as a Gurdwara, and much of the work was being done by volunteers. The building had been split into 2 floors, with the current area for prayer being upstairs. Eventually the main prayer area would be on the ground floor, and upstairs being used for gatherings and study.
In Gurdwaras men and women sit on separate sides of the temple and everyone covers their hair. The men wore triangular bandanas. Shoes are removed before entering the prayer area.
Sikhs have a strong sense of community and look after each other well They take in other Sikh travellers with food and lodging and are good hosts. Much was similar to Hinduism and Bhuddism, but Sikhs follow the teachings of a set of religious guides or Gurus who lived at different times in history and their teachings are also taught within a strong historical context which says much about the times during which they lived.
Judism – visiting the Orthadox Synagogue
After the events of the day the synagogue seemed to be the most familiar setting, and from a Christian perspective, the easiest to relate to. It helped that I’d had some prior experience of the stories and situations related from previously. Stained glass windows rescued from the old synagogue lined one wall. They depicted the symbols of the 12 tribes. The Jewish representative who answered our questions was a very funny and charasmatic man. His humour was that of Stephen Speilberg films.
This synagogue was open to Orthadox Jews only, so if you had two Jewish parents of a Jewish mother you were in, but if only your father was Jewish you could not join. This is a historical reference from times when tribal raids, raping and pillaging was more commonplace – you could tell who a child’s mother was but not necessarily their father. In the Synangogue, married men wear prayer shawls. This makes it easy to see which men were still available! They encourage inter-marriage within the faith.
We were shown the book of Esther written on parchment, a scroll which he was happy to handle not overly delicately as it did not contain the name of God in the story. Each of the scrolls is enscribed by hand and can take 2 years to complete. If mistakes are made they can be scratched off the parchment with a knife and they are written at a rate of around 3 paragraphs a day, not too much as to minimise mistakes. The scrolls are copied from older copies. The synagogue we visited had 5 scrolls. Three were rolled to different points, a bit like using a bookmark, and were used at different times. The other 2 were spare and had come into the possession of the synagogue when others had closed down and amalgamated.
