Durga Temple and Nepalse Culture Center ( DTNCC)

» 06 September 2013

Projects

Nepalese Community Center

Nepalese Community Center (NCC) is an underway constructive project of Ridgewood Nepalese Society. The building of this center (Fig. 1) is proposed to build in the recently purchased land – 1647 Hancock Street, Ridgewood, NY 11385. The Center will serve all the Nepalese and heritage residing in New York City metro area and to the world at large for their community development and cultural promotion. Currently, the estimated number of Nepalese in NYC is around 40,000, and there are about 2,000 Nepalese living in Ridgewood area within few blocks Putnam Ave and Myrtle Ave. This number in Ridgewood was around 100 at the end of 2003 and it is projected to grow more rapidly in the future.

There are more than 500 donors for this project which was mainly started from Dashain Curtural Program 2009 and Maha Puran (a seven-day Hindu holybook – Vagawat readings) held during August 9-15 in 2010 in NYC. Those charities raised little more than $.5 million including pledge commitment.

The ultimate goal of constructing NCC is to develop social pursuits making Nepalese and others feel homely in NYC and largely in the US while they are living away from their families and country of origin. We want to make our community like our home town doing cultural activities and celebrating festivals together. Moreover, we want to teach, promote and transfer our cultures, values and morality to our next generation while they grow up in the US. Our main concern is to make available our costumes, rituals and cultures for learning to the next generation that they should not be deviated from their original identity because of lacking information. And, in the other part, we want to teach our child to respect other’s religious beliefs and cultures while practicing their own. Therefore, NCC stands as the pride and heritage of Nepalese cultures in the US.

We have an ambitious plan to develop Ridgewood area as a ‘Little Nepal’ in future. The landmark job for this purpose is a recent purchase of a land for constructing NCC in Ridgewood area. We are planning for raising funds and constructing building in this land as soon as possible. Purchasing land was succeeded by a grand fundraising charity –Maha Puran (7 days) held in August 2010. Our next challenging task is to raise fund again for constructing building. We are moving ahead with specific plan, and united for action. Therefore, we proudly urge to all Nepalese, Americans, Hindus, Buddhists, supporters, well-wishers and associates to join hands for this noble cause.

Durga Temple

Durga Temple (DT) is also an underway constructive project of Ridgewood Nepalese Society. The concept of Temple came from the Dashain program (Jamara - plantation of grains in buckets for festival purpose), the greatest family festival of the year of Nepalese Hindu people on October 2008. Nepalese Hindu people worship Goddess Durga, a symbol of victory in Dashain festival. The name of temple remained Durga Temple as it was started from worshipping goddess Durga. The temple was established in of the buildings of Putnam Ave, and later was shifted to Summerfield Street. DT can be called also a part of NCC project because it will remain in the NNC building. The Society is actively working on DT project to develop a holy place for worshipping and developing Hindu rituals, and a common place for festivals, community and cultural activities while respecting others cultures equally.

The ultimate goal of establishing DT is to develop religious belief in Hinduism and related religions such as Buddhism and Jainism. We believe that the beliefs in God and spirituality make people of good moral character, trustworthy and disciplined. This will help to develop a social justice in the community and in the nation at large.