Hindu Temple doubles size, creates $9M cultural center
Woodlands site will include classes, dining
The Hindu Temple of The Woodlands soon will more than double in size with a 27,000 square foot cultural and education center hosting eight classrooms, a commercial center and an 8,000 square foot cultural hall.
Many Hindu temples prioritize one deity; with members representing nearly all 28 Indian states, founding permanent trustees Prabhu Reddy and Rajender Reddy wanted to create an inclusive, diverse temple aimed at promoting more than just worship. The temple’s services are focused on three tenets: worship, education and sewa, or selfless service for the community.
“India is a big country, not physically but by population and culture, and it worships the same God in different ways. I wanted a temple where they would all work together,” Prabhu Reddy said. “There is no other worship greater than worship to humanity.”
Plans for a cultural and education center are baked into the temple’s mission statement. After growing to serve over 800 families and thousands of residents at popular festivals, like Holi and Diwali, the temple started running out of room. Planning for its next phase about five years ago, vice president and permanent trustee SR Pinnapureddy said.
The temple continues to attract newcomers because of its inclusiveness and focus on community, chairman Sanjay Joshi said.
“We speak different languages, we wear different styles and colors, eat different foods,” Joshi said. “But when we come to the temple, we always call it one people, one temple.”
The cultural center’s hub will be a multipurpose hall with a stage and seating for 800 attendees and will host performances from the temple’s musical and dance programs, weddings, yoga, lectures and other large events.
In 12 years, the temple has brought the area’s Indian community together. With public classes, a multipurpose hall and a 4,000 square foot alternate hall for smaller events available for rent to the public, the temple hopes to extend that to everyone in The Woodlands area.
“The multipurpose hall is going to be like a society of cultural arts where we are going to not just have Indian festivals, but it is open to everybody so our community can open to the American culture,” social media and communications team member Neeti Mohan said. “We are trying to bridge that gap and render these services to the wider community.”
The new center will also host a commercial grade kitchen that can serve at least 500 at a time, which will help the temple’s all-volunteer crew with With a new permanent dining space for around 200 people, the space will also be open to the public.
The new facility will also include eight classrooms for classes ranging from Sanskriti, or epic Hindu poems and history, to robotics, coding and chess. The temple also offers seven language classes — Hindi, Telugu, Sanskrit, Tamil, Gujarati and Malayalam — and is working on getting them accredited with both Conroe ISD and local colleges.
“I get feedback from India, whenever I send pictures or videos to my family, they always think, ‘Even the kids back in India don’t do all of this stuff. They are amazed to see how the kids here are following the culture,” president Swami Somasundaram said. “The kids are able to talk to their grandparents, which makes them very happy.”
With worship and education now well-established, the temple has begun practicing sewa with those in need in The Woodlands community and hopes to pass on those tenets of diversity, inclusion and selfless service to the next generation through its youth organization.
“This is not meant only to be a religious place.. it’s also about preserving heritage,” Pinnapureddy said.
“The concept of food, education, culture, it’s all intermingled.”
The cultural center is set to be completed in February.