Visit to a Hindu temple

On Saturday we had a ward activity to go on a tour of a Hindu temple. I don't think the lady who lead the tour was ready for quite as many of us as showed up. For this particular Hindu denomination this is the largest temple in North America. It was beautiful. The building is designed to last for centuries so has no structural metal. This means that all of the stones are carved to lock into each other like a big puzzle. So not only was there very elaborate decorative stone work but there is also very precise structural chiseling happening too. I don't have any pictures of the inside but there were intricate carvings of characters and scenes from stories I don't know. the central piece in the inner dome was carved like a giant lotus flower. Our guide told us that it is the keystone holding the whole temple together (sounds a little familiar, but also much cooler than just an arch) and weighs something like 30 tons. It was a really big chunk of rock. The white stone that the temple was built out of was illuminated with little LED lights which were white most of the time which was quite pretty. For part of the tour they changed the colors of the lights, the blues and greens made me think we were under water. Our tour guide did a lovely job despite being a little overwhelmed by our very large group. Everyone remarked how much they enjoyed getting to learn about another culture.