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Staged Disappointment: Interpreting the Architectural Facade of the Vedanta Temple, SanFranciscoAuthor(s): Arijit SenSource: Winterthur Portfolio, Vol. 47, No. 4 (Winter 2013), pp. 207-244Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum,Inc.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/673870 .

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Arijit Sen is associate professoand Urban Planning, Universitycofounder of the Buildings-Landscinitiative between the MilwaukeeUniversity of Wisconsin.

The author thanks Swami PrDharmaprana of the Vedanta Soctheir help and assistance during reand Pravrajika Madhavaprana reavaluable comments. The author is gGlover; Stella Nair; Preeti Chopra;anonymous readers who commentarticle; Caitlin Boyle and Laurie Aand Andy Blaser, who helped withthanks Managing Editor Amy Earling the manuscript submission anfrom the UW–Milwaukee GraduaGraham Foundation, and the UW–tury Studies made the fieldwork po

B 2013 by The Henry FranciInc. All rights reserved. 0084-041

Th

ed Disappointmentreting the Architectural Facade of theta Temple, San Francisco

Sen

nta Temple of San Francisco is an eclectic specimen of architecture incorporating stylistic features from Western andaditions. The temple’s design in 1905 and renovation three years later served specific communicative functions in thesubstantial Indian immigration and appearances by Hindu preachers in North America. The article examines thes active role in promoting cultural contact by arguing that the layout of the temple and its furnishings encouraged aof choreographed spatial experiences that initially drew people in with a promise of the unfamiliar but brought themeproducing the comfort of the familiar.

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PEDESTRIAN approaching the southwestcorner of Filbert and Webster Streets in1906 San Francisco encountered an odd: a two-story structure housing the first Hin-le in the United States (fig. 1). The build-first glance, seemed out of place in thisrhood of quiet Victorian homes (fig. 2).s not merely the building’s grand scale that“out of place.” Rather, it was the unique ar-ralmotifs and form that attracted the atten-an Franciscans.article examines theVedantaTemple’s activeultural contact. The Vedanta Society specifi-

cally dcommmarkmotifcoulding’sPacifithis bthat bDespof theVedapopu
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r at the School of Architectureof Wisconsin–Milwaukee, andapes-Cultures doctoral programand Madison campuses of the

abuddhananda and Pravrajikaiety of Northern California forsearch. Pravrajika Dharmapranad drafts of this article and gaverateful to Sally Stanton; WilliamJennifer Morales; Paul Ivey; theed on versions and drafts of thislbano, who helped with editing;the digital drawings. The authors for her patience and help dur-d publication process. Fundingte School Research Committee,Milwaukee Center for 21st Cen-ssible.

s du Pont Winterthur Museum,6/2013/4704-0001$10.00

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igned the temple’s facade to serve an array ofnicative functions. The building was a visiblefor anyone visiting San Francisco. Orientalrew attention from afar, and its terrace spirese seen from the shoreline, raising the build-file during the well-attended 1915 Panama-nternational Exposition. San Franciscans sawding as an odd but important civic landmarkame part of the everyday urban landscape.its strangeness, the building became partveryday life of local residents. Stories of theTemple, with its arches and domes, enteredconsciousness. The Vedanta Society mem-anddisseminated brochures andpamphletsthey advertised the building as symbolic of

ulture and architecture. The leader of the or-on gave lectures to lay American audiencesng that being in this building could be spiri-riching to them. As a result, the buildingame an icon of Hindu religious experience.physical characteristics of the Vedantamediated the numerous ways that Sanans related to the unknown and alien cul-erging in their midst during the first de-the twentieth century. Vedanta Societyrs used the building and its architecturalmations as a hybrid language for represent-r institution and religion to a large and di-blic. By focusing narrowly on the design ofde and the most publicly accessible sectionuilding, I demonstrate how the experience

, 21 Nov 2013 09:13:36 AMd Conditions


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Fig. 1. V1906. (Pnoted.)

Winterthur Portfolio 47:4208

ing the building set the stage for cultural. By directing my attention to the users’ ex-e and kinesthetic engagement with this, I explore the building’s active role in pro-such contact.Vedanta Temple’s means of mediating cul-ntact was through the concept of staged dis-ment. I define “staged disappointment” asiety’s intentional strategy of designing ace of choreographed—or staged—spatialnces in the building interior. Affective im-s from somatic acts of seeing, entering, in-, touching, and experiencing this buildinged a unique embodied knowledge of thevironment. An individual’s experience ofisappointment taps into his or her internal-ological values.Connerton suggests that kinesthetic en-nts create multisensory bodily practicestail a combination of cognitive and habity.1 These performances reiterate systems

of clathe o

Amunthe Vof thcuriowhopassibackhabitspacepersoknowtempmiliaexperespocial aideolBut o
ence wachurch.ings of t
l Connerton,How Societies Remember (New York: CambridgePress, 1989), 72–104.

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ification, beliefs, and ideologies central toupants.itecture can be a medium for visceral com-tion during cultural contact. In the case ofanta Temple, the exotic and novel facadeuilding excited peoples’ expectations andy and attracted their notice. An individualght a glimpse of the Vedanta Temple inor who actually entered the temple referredpreexisting knowledge, expectations, andsponses in order to make sense of this newf the experience was unfamiliar, then theinterpreted and translated it based on priordge, however incorrect, of what a Hindumight be. If the new experience was fa-hen it produced automatic—and perhapsd—responses. Either way, an individual’se to the staged spectacle depended on so-political contexts, and the response was

ically informed and culturally sanctioned.entering the building, the interior experi-s little different from that in a ChristianThus the architecture, layout, and furnish-he interior circumvented the initial curiosity

edanta Temple from Filbert Street (facing southeast), San Francisco, California, photohotos1908or later, Vedanta Society ofNorthernCalifornia, SanFrancisco, unless otherwise

1 Nov 2013 09:13:36 AMonditions


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Staged Disappointment 209

ectations of the unknown. An initial expec-f novelty produced by the building facadeowed by a sense of disappointment whenred the building. The facade of the Vedantawas renovated amere two years after its initialtion. The new facade even more forcefullyspectacle that initially drew people in withse of the unfamiliar but brought them backducing the comfort of the familiar.2

temple’s role in representing and popular-ndu culture in the North American contextevealed by stylistic comparisons. Indeed,nalysis of sculptural forms of the templend temple typology shows that the architec-the San Francisco temple did not replicateHindu temples in India and was unlike anyace of worship built across the Indian dias-

poratirelyits ararcheThusworsCaribPacifcompbuildChicathe inof moturyFranTheocusse

Instterpretspoliticatwentietthe natu

se phenomena occur every day in Disney landscapes,hopping malls, and ethnic spaces, such as Chinatowns.ases the exterior architecture is highly visible and exotic,teriors consist of standard retail stores and consumer

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ring this period. The building’s plan was en-nctional,modern, and contemporary, whileitectural features such as domes, cornices,nd moldings, lacked decorative consistency.omparisons with other diasporic places ofbuilt by Indian immigrants in Fiji, thean, East Africa, and countries along theim during this period lack utility. Likewise,isons with more recent examples of templein the United States in Jackson Heights,, or Calabasas, are not appropriate becausernal dynamics, spatial practices, and politicsrn immigrants differ from those of a cen-. Relevant comparisons between the Sanco Vedanta Temple and the Point Lomaphical Society complex, however, will be dis-elow.ead, a social history of this building in-its material culture within the social andl dynamics of the time. By the turn of theh century Asian immigrants had changedre of the national debate over immigration.

esidential neighborhood northwest of the temple.



The Chbic attemAmericalarmedagainstcalled inand Evein VancCaliforncludingBarredlarge padia repothe Wea smallwas welthem bu

TheStates tocompatand acano accoever visito gurdwUnitedand cenpredomthe gurdattracteworship

Thetime wh

ine oh thetustismsocAmuicisdellishtiaerksHin.”8

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3 The100 until 1ican and C1908 1,71and 438 eimmigranC. MisrowSan Franc

4 Mosduring thof the immmass medgrounds odoos.” JoaNorth Ame

5 Forthe diaspo“Finding OCaliforniaed. Akhil GPress, 199Mexican-A168–77.

6 Althing the firare predochanging


inese Exclusion Act of 1882 was a xenopho-pt to control the number of East Asians in

a. By 1907 an influx of laborers from Indiathe wary nativists and white workers.3 Riotsthe Hindoos, as Indians were incorrectlyNorth America, broke out in Bellingham

rett, Washington, in the United States, andouver, Canada.4 By 1913 the passage of theia Alien Land Law prohibited Asians (in-Indians) fromowning property. TheAsiaticZone Act of 1917 barred immigration fromrts of Asia, including India. While mass me-rted the appearance of Indian labor alongst Coast as a frightening alien invasion,er number of Hindu monks (or swamis)comed onto the national scene. One ofilt the new temple on Filbert Street.se Hindu swamis did not come to the Unitedattend to the needs of their working-class

riots. There are accounts of Indian studentsdemics visiting and living in the temple butunts of working-class Indian immigrantsting this building. The working classes wentaras, Sikh places of worship, which in theStates also served as social gathering spacesters of political activities.5 In contrast to theinantly immigrant community patronizingwaras, the San Francisco Vedanta Templed a growing number of Anglo-Americanpers.6

odd popularity of Hindu preachers at aen anti-Asian sentiments were high can be

explaa timwhicoverwtellecatheicriticandintoand bFranWenestabChrisfurth(monzon,gloryTheoTheoLomDemraphcentedurin

Aneigharchiof mFilbeas “cowas b
all livesway forThe 19and vegdevelopEdwardWhen t1905, hthe arefrom arflux (figalong BStreet f
numberof Indians entering theUnited Stateswas less than904, when 258men arrived. By 1907 and 1908 the Amer-anadian press was writing about the Hindu invasion. In0 immigrants were admitted (the peak for that decade)xcluded from the United States. The number of Indiants surged again in 1910 but dropped thereafter. Jogesh, East Indian Immigration of the Pacific Coast (1915; repr.,isco: R. and E. Research Associates, 1971), 11.t of the Indian immigrants entering the United Statesis time were Sikhs from the Indian state of Punjab. Fewigrants were Hindus, Christians, andMuslims. Americania did not distinguish among the various religious back-f Indian immigrants and instead called all of them “Hin-n M. Jensen, Passage from India: Asian Indian Immigrants inrica (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988).more on the history of Sikhs and the role of gurdwaras inra, see ibid., 26–29, 124–25, 180–81; Karen Leonard,ne’s Own Place: Asian Landscapes Re-visioned in Rural

,” inCulture, Power, Place: Explorations in Critical Anthropology,upta and James Ferguson (Durham, NC: DukeUniversity7), 118–36, and Making Ethnic Choices: California’s Punjabi-mericans (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992),

ough few Indian patrons visited the Vedanta Temple dur-st decades of the twentieth century, current worshippersminantly Indian-born immigrants. This is because of thedemographics of immigration from India since 1965.

7 Pauern Illinoi

8 Wen1930), 13.

9 Itembox 12, aFrancisco.

10 Byopment otional Exp


ed by what historian Paul Carter refers to asf “spiritual crisis” in American religious life,riggered massive internal migrations thatlmed urban ministries, and also by the in-al challenges posed by Darwinists, scientists,movements, and advocates of the “higher” of the Bible.7 At this moment of spiritualial turmoil, Hindu monks made inroadserican society, preaching a new religionlding religious centers and temples in Sanco, New York, and Boston. According tol Thomas, “Hinduism became more firmlyed in America than in Europe. Theosophy,n Science and similar religious movementsextended its sway, and when Hindu swamis) themselves began to appear on the hori-duism suddenly advanced in all its pristineBuddhism and newer religions, such asphy, also made inroads, and in 1901 thephical Society built a huge complex in Pointsouth of San Francisco near San Diego.raphic changes, political events, and geog-ade the San Francisco Vedanta Temple af cultural contact and social transformationthis period.local level the landscapes of San Franciscorhoods were being transformed, too. Thetural facade of the Hindu temple was oney changes sweeping the neighborhood oftreet.9 The neighborhood had been knownhollow” until fifteen years before the templet, when the local lagoons were drained andtock were ordered out of the area to makeencroaching residential developments.00 Sanborn map shows corrals, factories,etable gardens. In succeeding years the areaed quickly, and Victorian mansions andian-style homes appeared in the landscape.he construction of the temple began inowever, there were still a few vacant lots ina. A photograph in the Vedanta archivesound 1908 shows the temple area still in. 3). During this time the waterfront wasay Street, and small hotels lined Websterrom the bay uphill toward the temple.10

l Carter, The Spiritual Crisis of the Gilded Age (DeKalb: North-s University Press, 1971).dell Thomas,Hinduism Invades America (New York: Beacon,

s F, E duplicate, box 6; items B, E, F, box 11; items B–I,ll Vedanta Society of Northern California Archives, San

1915 the bay’s edgemoved further inland due to the devel-f the marina landfill during the Panama-Pacific Interna-osition.



The Cocenter.1

Hotel. TCompaand nex

ged19ssig

Fig. 3. V

11 Acsame namSutter Streand the stpany’s Gasfrom 1905of its inteSan FrancH. S. CroLtd., 18993:299–302www.sfgen21, 2013)Sanborn-PeCollection2013).


lonial Hotel is on Webster Street at right1 On the next block is the Il Vecchio Toscanohe Presidio Hay, Grain, Wood, and Coalny is to the right of the Colonial Hotel,t to it is a horseshoe repair store. Businesses

chancircasmithto-let

Archite

Mary Loautoethof the V

cording to the 1908 city directories, a hotel with thee appears on the northwest corner of Stockton andets. However, the location of Angel Island in this imageorage cylinders of San Francisco Gas and Electric Com-Works plant along the coastline matches Sanborn mapsand confirms that this image showsWebster Street northrsection with Filbert. H. S. Crocker Co., Crocker-Langleyisco Directory for the Year Ending 1908 (San Francisco:cker Co., 1908), 461; Sanborn-Perris Map Company–1900 San Francisco Sanborn-Perris Fire Insurance Maps,, San Francisco Genealogy website, 1996–2010, http://ealogy.com/sf/sanborn/sanborn.htm (accessed October; Sanborn-Perris Map Company Ltd., 1905 San Franciscorris Fire Insurance Maps, 3:299–300, David Rumsey Map, http://www.davidrumsey.com (accessed October 21,

12 TheThe templple, whichbuilding npany Ltd.,3:320; SaSanborn-PeCollection


hands frequently, however, and another08 photograph shows a shoe repair shop,tore, and barbershop in the vicinity withns on their storefronts (fig. 4).12

cture of Cultural Contact

uise Pratt’s concepts of a contact zone andnography frame the following discussionedanta Temple as the first physical outpost

iew north from the temple terrace.

exact locationof this photograph is difficult to determine.e archives note that these images were taken from the tem-would place the stores along Filbert Street. However, theumbering suggests otherwise. Sanborn-Perris Map Com-1899–1900 San Francisco Sanborn-Perris Fire Insurance Maps,nborn-Perris Map Company Ltd., 1905 San Franciscorris Fire Insurance Maps, 3:299–300, David Rumsey Map.



of HindWorld.1

groupsstances oand inteethnogrin whicand steThe terstudy resentatioceptancmembeallowedreligiontakingtions, th

tegice

13 Ma(1991): 3

14 Ibi

Autoethnographic practices are not exactly the same as self-alizing practices. Following Edward Said’s seminal discussionentalism, much work has been done on how the people whoraditionally been Orientalized in Western discourses havehese stereotypical representations as a strategy for social ac-ce and communication with the West. See Edward Said, Ori-(New York: Pantheon, 1978). Many of these discussions

merged from the scholarship of tourism. Analyzing represen-l practices in recent Chinese movies, Arif Dirlik has referred“Orientalism of the Orientals” as a form of self-orientalizinge in which recent Chinese filmmakers have used such imageryresent Chinese culture and people. See Arif Dirlik, “Chinesey and the Question of Orientalism,” History and Theory 35ber 1996): 96–118, esp. 99. Chu Yiu-Wai argues that global-and fluidity of cultures have complicated the notion of repre-on and authenticity, stating that it is “a question of politicalation, not a self-evident, natural matter.” Chu Yiu-Wai, “Thetance of Being Chinese: Orientalism Reconfigured in the Age

Fig. 4. C


u religious practice and culture in the New3 A contact zone is a space where multiplegrapple with each other, often in circum-f unequal power.One of the communicativeractional practices of a contact zone is auto-aphy, defined as a formof self-representationh people adapt and reuse representationsreotypes of themselves made by others.14

m “autoethnography” for purposes of thisfers to individuals’ use of familiar repre-ns as a strategy to gain legitimacy and ac-e within a difficult social context. For thers of the Vedanta Society, this strategythem to promote and popularize theirand organization to San Franciscans. By

ownership of these forms of representa-e autoethnographer becomes an agent in

a strapract

15

orienton Orihave tused tceptanentalismhave etationato thepracticto repHistor(DecemizationsentatiarticulImpor

ry L. Pratt, “Arts of the Contact Zone,” Profession 913–40.d., 35.

of Globalof buildinggraphic anWishnoff,the Shapinning Histor


y of resistance to more powerful discursives.15

ommercial and residential buildings near the temple.

Modernity,” Boundary 2 (2008): 183–206. For an accountpractices ofNew York’s Chinatown that employs autoethno-d self-orientalizing strategies, see Greg Umbach and Dan“Strategic Self-Orientalism: Urban Planning Policies andgofNewYorkCity’s Chinatown,1950–2005,” Journal of Plan-y 7 (August 2008): 214–38.



Noticans weit was a pTo Ameas onion(towersnewspapNigel Rabecausecognitivsive stabwidesprsignificaconsisteknowingto embotions; aregularithat indand adaallow intheir reltionof seTempleHindu,craftedSocietyeclecticder to gThe sucpendedtive inte

Thement whfirst timcontactshared lsons failculturaltoricallyGreenbwhich “pone in wegorizeif they lAlthoug

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ativroonncterare, iferfoe,ingiarupaneirnciete sgevecoute,ot

16 NigContext inof CulturalRoutledge

17 Ibid18 Ste

New World19 Ibid

Paul Carter, The Road to Botany Bay: An Exploration of Land-nd History (1987; repr., Minneapolis: University of Minnesota010), 1–33.Jennifer Nardone, “Roomful of Blues: Jukejoints and the


only was the temple a location where Amer-nt to learn and practice an Eastern religion,lace for autoethnographic representations.ricans, architectural stylistic features suchdomes, trefoil arches, or temple shikharas

) were visual forms that many had seen iner and journal accounts of the exotic East.pport writes that stereotypes are importantthey provide a well-recognized syntax ande structure for all. Rapport calls this “discur-ility,” where “stereotypes are a stable andead discursive currency, and they provident initial points of reference … a source ofnt, expectable, broad and immediateways ofof the social world; a ready means by whichdy and express amultitude of complex emo-shortcut to generalities, to future possibleties and uniformities.”16 Rapport explainsividuals engage with stereotypes by adoptingpting them to suit their needs. Stereotypesdividuals to personalize and contextualizeationship to others as well as their presenta-lf in everyday life.17 In the case of theVedanta, the architecture borrowed stereotypes fromIslamic, and Western styles to represent aimage to the general public. The Vedantaused these stereotypical forms and a visiblyfacade as representational shorthand in or-ain acceptance among San Franciscans.cess of this autoethnographic strategy de-on arousing emotional responses and affec-rpretations.momentary element of surprise and amaze-en a San Franciscan saw the temple for thee is akin to the initial moment of culturaldescribed by Stephen Greenblatt in whichanguage, previous experience, or compari-because two cultures are so different. Theseencounters are relational, local, and his-contingent “engaged representations.”18

latt refers to that initial moment of wonder,recedes, even escapes, moral categories,” ashich the parties have no objective way to cat-or judge an experience and no way to knowove or hate what they have encountered.19

h the experience of seeing the Vedanta

TemGreedue tlentfacad

Timagtranshow Etheirthe nnameknowpretaposse

Band wformand genvirperiecouncompstancJenniter bybiencbuildfamilin-groancesof thinstatwentvisiblcouratheirturaland ovisibltice p

20

scape aPress, 2

21

el Rapport, “Migrant Selves and Stereotypes: Personala Postmodern World,” inMapping the Subject: GeographiesTransformation, ed. Steve Pile and Nigel Thrift (London:, 1995), 279.., 281.phen Greenblatt, Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 12.., 20.

Cultural LIdentity, anAlison K. Hof Tennes

22 JesLandscapeand Place,

23 I bbook by thtion of con


from the street was less dramatic thanlatt’s examples and not completely novelan Franciscans’ prior knowledge and preva-reotypes about the East, nevertheless theroduced a sense of awe and wonder.initial moment of wonder was followed bytive and cognitive acts such as recognition,on, and interpretation. Paul Carter explainsopean explorers such as Captain Cook usedior knowledge and memories to interpretlandscape of Australia, assigning familiaro the new topographies. The wondrous un-gave way to European taxonomies of inter-and translation for surveying and ultimately

ng the continent.20

Carter andGreenblatt emphasize languagetten accounts that fail to address the per-e and affective responses from individualsups encountering each other and the builtment. Studies that focus on the human ex-e of material landscapes suggest a usefulpoint to those approaches andprovide usefulisons with the Vedanta Temple case. For in-n her description of Mississippi blues joints,Nardone examines the moment of encoun-cusing on the human experience of the am-interior layout, signage, and lights on thefacade that help to define a juke joint as aand recognizable space for members of the.21 Outsiders remain oblivious of these nu-d feel unwelcome in the juke joints becauseunfamiliarity with these spaces. In anothere, Sewell demonstrates how turn-of-the-h-century department stores invested inhighlytorefronts alongmain streets in order to en-female customers to venture inside.22 By

ry location, storefronts became a site of cul-ntact and a transitional space between indoordoor realms. The storefronts were highlyfilled with “objects of desire” meant to en-ential consumers.23 Those storefronts also

andscape of the Mississippi Delta,” in Constructing Image,d Place, vol. 9 of Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture, ed.oagland and Kenneth A. Breisch (Knoxville: University

see Press, 2003), 166–75.sica Sewell, “Sidewalks and Store Windows as Politicals,” in Hoagland and Breisch, Constructing Image, Identity,85–98.orrow the term “objects of desire” from Adrian Forty’se same name. Forty examines the marketing and produc-sumer items since the Industrial Revolution, arguing that



becametion abothe sammarketsbe stagetions fro

I arginteriorways simencounTempleengagethat phbuildingdomainand expsional mhearingwe expesuch enten polisaw, enting durcenturybolic reture. A bcontextfor enco

A Brief

A talkVivekan

amigithet w. Fans.anprecheitiericheInncs aanurnreffraaneugad.n dlisricro

objects areage consummay undeobjects areSince 1750

24 AriStores,” In/pastissueTransnatithropology 6World DaMaking MMetcalf (B

25 Detion in EaStructures:Johanna DAnother Ci(NewHavtives on PuIngersoll (and Holy Tginia (Ne1986).


political spaces where posters and informa-ut suffrage were prominently displayed. Ine vein, recent work on immigrant stores anddemonstrates that storefronts continue tod by store owners to solicit emotional reac-m potential customers.24

ue that the Vedanta Temple’s facade ands engaged its users’ senses and emotions inilar to the above examples. Human bodiester thematerial world, including the Vedanta, via sensory and symbolic stimuli, and suchments are culturally coded. Upton arguesysical registers, such as building edges,types, and physical edges betweenmultiples, organize the ways humans understanderience their world.25 He identifies proces-ovements—walking, smelling, seeing, andacross these physical registers—as ways thatrience the material world and argues thatgagements with the material world are of-tically and ideologically coded. Those whoered, and used the Vedanta Temple build-ing the first two decades of the twentiethencountered a series of physical and sym-gisters that were encoded into the architec-rief history of the Vedanta Society providesfor understanding the underlying purposeding the temple building.

Parliof relwithevenfaithsVivekState1893icanbrancan cAme

Tcienta braformderstthe tandto reVivekuniquthroabroIndiarevivarhetoary p
progres
nars’rarihe

History of the Vedanta Society

by a Hindu monk from India, Swamianda, was one of the highlights of theWorld’s

natioonizecultuing”B

T
ety bega
carefully designed in order to produce value and encour-ers to acquire them. By analyzing the design of objects we

rstand the social and cultural contexts within which theseproduced. Adrian Forty,Objects of Desire: Design and Society(London: Thames & Hudson, 1992).jit Sen, “Everyday Production of Ethnicity in ImmigrantTensions 2 (Spring 2009), http://www.yorku.ca/intents.html, and “‘India Shopping’: Indian Grocery Stores andonal Configurations of Belonging,” Ethnos: Journal of An-7 (March 2002): 75–97; Susan Slyomovics, “TheMuslimy Parade and ‘Storefront’ Mosques of New York City,” inuslim Space in North America and Europe, ed. Barbara Dalyerkeley: University of California Press, 1996), 204–16.ll Upton, “Grid as Design Method: The Spatial Imagina-rly New Orleans,” in Architecture—Design Methods—IncaFestschrift for Jean-Pierre Protzen, ed. Hans Dehlinger andehlinger (Kassel: Kassel University Press, 2009), 174–81,ty: Urban Life and Urban Spaces in the New American Republicen, CT: Yale University Press, 2008), Streets: Critical Perspec-blic Space, ed. Zeynep Çelik, Diane Favro, and RichardBerkeley: University of California Press, 1994), 277–88,hings and Profane: Anglican Parish Churches in Colonial Vir-w York: Architectural History Foundation/MIT Press,

26 Carin the UniteLouiseBuAdvaita A

27 Thportions oThus Vedlatter inqyears as dand interp

28 SwAbhedanavance to tVedanta thReligion?,The ComplAshrama,

29 ParPostcolonia1993), anand the CSouth AsiaPandey (N


ent of Religions, an international gatheringous scholars held inChicago in conjunction1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Theas organized to create a global dialogue ofollowing his huge success at the parliament,anda embarked on a tour of the UnitedHis popular and well-attended lectures ind 1899 were much publicized in the Amer-ss. During these visits Vivekananda set ups of the Vedanta Society in various Ameri-s and drew a large following among Anglo-an urban social elites.26

se societies studied and practiced an an-dian theology called Vedanta, referring toh of Hindu philosophy that examines thend processes of self-realization and an un-ding of the ultimate nature of reality.27 Atof the twentieth century various religiousorm movements in India used Vedantame Hindu discourse and practice. Swamianda and his monastic order produced ainterpretation of the philosophy of Vedantah their texts and lectures in India and28 Nationalist leaders in India and in theiaspora employed the same resurgent andt interpretations of Hindu traditions in theiragainst British rule and Christian mission-paganda. By rediscovering Hinduism’ssive, scientific, and philosophical origins,list and religious leaders countered the col-argument that Indians were politically andlly deficient and hence in need of “civiliz-tish rule or Christian religious conversion.29

San Francisco branch of the Vedanta Soci-n as the “Vedanta Class” on April 14, 1900.

l T. Jackson,Vedanta for theWest: The RamakrishnaMovementd States (Indianapolis: IndianaUniversity Press, 1994); Marierke, SwamiVivekananda inAmerica: NewDiscoveries (Calcutta:shrama, 1972).e Vedanta teachings are commentaries on the concludingf the ancient Vedas, such as the texts called the Upanishads.anta teachings are also known as uttara mimamsa, or theuiries. Vedanta teachings have accumulated over theifferent religious scholars have added commentariesretations.ami Vivekananda and his contemporary Swaminda wrote extensively on Vedanta philosophy and its rele-wentieth-century life. For more on the interpretations ofought by Swami Vivekananda, see “Is Vedanta the Future” 8:122–41, and “The Hindu Religion,” 1:327–32, both inete Works of Swami Vivekananda, 8 vols. (Calcutta: Advaita1990).tha Chatterjee, The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial andl Histories (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,d “A Religion of Urban Domesticity: Sri Ramakrishnaalcutta Middle Classes,” in Subaltern Studies: Writings onnHistory and Society, ed. Partha Chatterjee andGyanendraew Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1992), 7:40–68.



This clSwamiIndia inThe Sanof powebers whmonk intem of aand tranno accetion’s ophead.

In 1Swami TSociety,dominathe Veding by SSwami Tnumberswami athe numfor Swam13, 1903as Swammembe

Trigunity wstrong idto San Fdividedsystemathe olddisciplideeplyhis authafter hisofficersdecidedciety up1903, TThe Vedaread, “RBelur MRamakr

ofmy Sntauawendlydiahii’skrnen Fisntahltorgay Smeo

hisd sofapthesolny 1grontaen,lekne.3

n we pWol wlsoheng

30 Ma(San Fran75, 93; haArchives.

31 Bu32 Pam

San Francisnia ArchivSwami Trig


ass became a full-fledged society underTuriyananda, sent by Vivekananda from1900 to direct the San Francisco center.Francisco Vedanta Society’s two centers

r were a society board served by lay mem-o decided financial matters and an Indiancharge of spiritual practices. This dual sys-uthority made the monk the sole exponentslator of Hindu philosophy. However, withss to funds and no power over the organiza-erations, themonk was reduced to a titular

903, when Swami Trigunatita succeededuriyananda at the San Francisco Vedantahe was the lone Indian in an organizationted by Anglomembers. Themembership ofanta Society totaled twenty-five at its found-wami Vivekananda. Marie Louise Burke,rigunatita’s biographer, guessed that thewas probably unchanged when the new

rrived in 1903. She based her estimate onber of people who attended a receptioni Trigunatita on January 7, 1903. By April, the number ofmembers increased to fortyi Trigunatita worked tirelessly to increasership numbers.30

unatita’s goal was to build consensus andithin the congregation and to produce aentity for this organization.When he camerancisco, he met a congregation that wasby interests. On his arrival the swami begantically reducing the political influence ofguard and the lay board in order to bringne, coherence, and organization into adivided congregation and to consolidateority within the organization. Nine daysarrival Trigunatita held ameeting in whichof the society, in consultation with the swami,“upon a reorganization of the Vedanta So-on a more definite basis.”31 By January 15,rigunatita had produced a new pamphlet,nta Society, San Francisco.32 The subheadingepresented by the Ramakrishna Mission,ath, Calcutta, India,” and the seal of theishna Mission of India was imprinted on the

backwas adia bVedaspiritandthis Iclearof Inder wswamRamainitiowas thin Sathat hVedapamptakethe o

Bnualcalledafterwoulfloorto setfrombusincontrtratio

BcoreVedawomTempituallic lifsixteeof thMrs.Ansebut a

Texisti
the temand seepower. Oan impedent ofTrigunaorder w
rie Louise Burke, Swami Trigunatita: His Life and Workcisco: Vedanta Society of Northern California, 1997),ndwritten notes, Vedanta Society of Northern California

rke, Swami Trigunatita, 78.phlet, San Francisco Vedanta Society, The Vedanta Society,co, January 15, 1903, Vedanta Society of Northern Califor-es. For further description of the pamphlet see also Burke,unatita, 81. 33 Jac


the document. The Ramakrishna Missiononastic Hindu organization founded in In-wami Vivekananda in 1897. The AmericanSocieties were designed to be under the

l leadership of the Ramakrishna Missionre meant to be the Western branches ofian organization. Trigunatita’s pamphletmentioned that the Ramakrishna Missionwas the primary and only parent body un-ch the San Francisco society operated. Thepublic reiteration of the importance of theishna Mission shows its centrality to his def-of the society’s identity. Since Trigunatitasole representative of RamakrishnaMissionrancisco, this declaration also confirmedposition and power over the San FranciscoSociety were paramount. Creation of the

et was the first of many actions that he wouldreiterate and consolidate his control overnization.eptember 1905 the swami abolished the an-etings of the society’s lay board. Instead, heccasional business meetings for membersevening classes. During such meetings hetep down from the altar platform to thethe auditorium. In this way he attemptedart the areas where he held spiritual servicee areas where he conducted secular ands meetings, thereby clarifying his emergingover the spiritual as well as secular adminis-of the organization.907 the swami had successfully attracted aup of educated Anglo patrons devoted topractices. A large number of them weremany foreign-born, who used the Vedantaas a place where they could exchange spir-owledge and prepare to contribute to pub-3 The temple’s cornerstone document listsomen as contributors to the 1906purchaseroperty. Women such as C. F. Peterson,llberg, Mrs. Bartle, Cara French, and Idaere not only important donors and devoteesmembers of the board.decision in 1908 to add an extra floor to thebuilding only two years after completion ofple was entirely Swami Trigunatita’s ideams to have symbolized his consolidation offficially, the reason for the expansion wasnding visit of Swami Brahmananda, presi-the Ramakrishna order in Calcutta. Swamitita explained that the president of theould occupy the top floor of the building

kson, Vedanta for the West, 89–98.



while vibe a mosporic aHis visitsince itfor Trignever cwas nevpansionwithin t

Manful thatCliquesit difficwork. Trepreseastical wsymbolihis visiotext. Thexpress

Elsethis temof poweHere itproperfacadeinside tswami pthe freeing theplannedplayedpoliticadivided

Theplains hThe firof the “encounmateria

inhentssxp

ExInt

apt ant wctude wtheaiat,otuitorotostrrat(senarW

isibtsts infs ts ats oiscretwlbele

34 Brahe was alsbelongedorganizati

35 Bu36 Tri

tion and rValley, Sanexpandingwas resiste

37 Aritural LandBerkeley,2002), 169


siting.34 His visit to the United States wouldnumental event that could establish a dia-nd global Hindu center in San Francisco.also would have immense symbolic valuewould show the president’s full supportunatita’s cause. Since Swami Brahmanandaame to San Francisco, however, and thereer any surety that he would, the temple’s ex-more likely was related to considerations

he society membership.y older members of the society were hope-Trigunatita’s presence was temporary.35

and infighting among the disciples madeult for Swami Trigunatita to carry out hishe swami’s decision to expand the templented a focus on organizational and ecclesi-ork in the city.36 The temple addition was ac act that helped Trigunatita consolidaten of the organization within an urban con-e building’s new architecture was amaterialion of a new urban spiritual center.where I have examined how the building ofple and its architecture reflect the politicsr and control within the Vedanta Society.37

suffices to state that buying land, owningty, building the temple, determining thedetails, and sanctioning use and behaviorhe building were strategies that gave theolitical and financial independence anddom to direct the organization. Thus, build-temple was no simple act but, rather, aprocess in which the architectural design

a symbolic part in the swami’s wresting ofl and spiritual control from an increasinglyboard.analysis in the following two sections ex-ow the temple building engaged its users.st of these sections describes the naturefirst sight”—an initial moment when onetered this building—and the symbolic andl qualities of its facade. The second section

examing tone eproceary e

Theand

ThepoinmenchitevieweWhilthe oone respecStreesaw nthe btwo-sA phpededecocadeings osimilFromwas vStreestreemoti

AmenFranc“Theotheron Fimarb
tecture.bulbousner of tfrom Wenterindome mSocietynortheaof the st
hmananda was more than the head of the organization;o a colleague and friend of Swami Trigunatita, and bothto the founding group of monks who began the parenton in India.rke, Swami Trigunatita, 157–210.gunatita’s predecessor established a center for medita-etreat called Shanti Ashram in picturesque San Antoniota Clara County, away from the city. Trigunatita’s focus onurban outreach in San Francisco and surrounding areasd by many disciples. Ibid., 133–37.jit Sen, “Mapping Transnational Boundaries: Urban Cul-scapes of South Asian Immigrants in San Francisco and1900–2000” (PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley,–226.

38 NeFrancisco CCalifornia


es the bodily experience of entering and us-public chapel. The entry sequence—howered, what one saw, and the nature of theion—was the first in a series of such second-eriences.

terior at First Sight: “A Throng of Curiouserested Spectators”

proach to the building and one’s vantaged distance shaped a person’s first engage-ith the Vedanta Temple. The eclectic ar-re of the building became evident whenfrom a few blocks north of Filbert Street.alking up Filbert Street from the east, oner hand, a minor hill hid the building untilched a block away. Frommost other angles,lly if viewed from the sidewalks of Webstertraveling uphill from Union Street, onehing unfamiliar. The residential portion oflding looked like any other neighboringy frame building with large bay windows.graph taken in 2000 reconstructs what aian saw from Webster (fig. 5). Unlike theive treatments on the Filbert Street side fa-e fig. 1), the decorative architectural mold-the bay windows along Webster Street wereto those used in neighboring buildings.ebster Street only the dome on the terracele. A viewer had to crossWebster and Filbertand stand on the northeast corner of theseorder to fully view the eclectic architectural

hat made this building distinctive.result of the differing architectural treat-n the temple’s various elevations, a Sano Chronicle reporter wrote in January 1906,is nothing to distinguish the building fromo story flats save the entrance to the templert Street, where there is a vestibule of whiteunder an arch after theHindu style of Archi-”38Oddly, the reporter failed tomention the, double-onion dome on the northeast cor-he building. If he approached the buildingebster or Fillmore Streets to Filbert Street,g through the public entrance there, theay not have been visible. A 1908 Vedantapublication described this dome on thest corner of the building as “a little specimenyle of some of the old fashioned temples of

wspaper clipping, “Resident Priest Tells of Faith,” Sanhronicle, January 7, 1906, Vedanta Society of NorthernArchives.



the provgive to s

Thealong Feye spomix ofIndo-Sasuch asteenth(fig. 6)arounddoorwaythe patrthe canostandingthe wallmoldingsymboli

ical hanlagargncagurikeryicl

39 Swaphlet; alsoSan FrancChronicle,California

40 Thein tiles. Thchanted a“salutation

Fig. 5. W

Original manuscript, Ernest C. Brown, “The Work of Swamiatita in theWest,” ca. 1908, 24, Vedanta Society of Northernrnia Archives. This work was published later in Ernest C., “The Work of Swami Trigunatita in the West,” Prabuddhaa 33 ( January–December 1928). A similar description ap-in “Dedication of First Hindoo Temple,” San Francisco

cle, January 8, 1906, quoted in Burke, Swami Trigunatita,he swami explained the decision to place the eagle by refer-


ince of Bengal [in India]. Therefore, itmightome, an idea of antiquity.”39

highly visible public entrance to the templeilbert Street that had caught the reporter’srted a multifoiled, pointed arched entry, aa scalloped arch and a multifoil cuspedracenic engrailed arch found in buildingsthe Lotus Mahal, built between the four-and sixteenth centuries in Hampi, India. A Sanskrit inscription on the spandrelthe mosaic arch over the Filbert Street sideexpressed a dedication to Shri Ramakrishna,on saint of the organization (fig. 7).40 Atoppy was a carved eagle, its outstretched wingsout in relief against the horizontal lines ofsiding and the elaborate cornice with trefoil. That carving was placed intentionally toze the American eagle and the temple’s

Amertionasubstican ftwo lentrathe fl

ConlooJanuaChron

41

TrigunCalifoBrownBharatpearedChroni178. T

mi Trigunatita, General Features of the Hindu Temple, pam-quoted in newspaper clippings, “General Features, Theisco Vedanta Society and Hindu Temple,” San FranciscoJanuary 8, 1906, both in Vedanta Society of NorthernArchives.words Om Namo Bhagavatey Ramakrishnaya are inscribede first word is Om, a symbolic word for “the absolute,”nd repeated during meditation. The rest is translated asto the blessed Lord, Ramakrishna.”

ring to Amwide spreaneath, are[Americanlogical birbol of greprogress.”mythologiestablishenational fSociety an


n identity.41 On special civic occasions, na-olidays, and festivals, that claim was furthertiated. The building was decked with Amer-s and the Filbert Street entrance draped withe flags (see fig. 18). Standing outside thise, viewers’ eyes would be drawn up froms to culminate at the American eagle.osity and expectations of the bizarre drewrs and passersby to the temple’s opening on8, 1906. A reporter from the San Franciscoe noted “a throng of curious and interested

ebster Street entrance, photo 2000. (Arijit Sen.)

erican andHindumythologies: “The eagle has her wingsd, and an amiable or fraternal face. On its wings, under-painted the American flags, well protected. … The] eagle can be taken as expressive of the Hindu mytho-d Garurh (the sovereign of the feathered race), the sym-at strength, exclusive devotion, and steady and rapidThis analogy between the American eagle and a Hinducal bird shows how the swami reimagined and connectedd mythologies within the Vedanta discourse to Americanolklore. “General Features, The San Francisco Vedantad Hindu Temple”; Burke, Swami Trigunatita, 367–73.



spectatoflowed ufor theinteresttractedof Easteceremothat. Inceremotouch throbe andsionary,

Thecade sposocietya few laythe stylitural faknowledrenderinhistoric

spowf Ortactgsrieedgmmosws ‘Tt eabthted

42 “De43 Ibi

Fig. 6. A1856. (S


rs, who filled the halls to the door and over-pon the sidewalk long before the hours setexercises. Many were attracted by a genuinein the Vedanta faith, but many more were at-by the expectations of beholding some formrn mysticism or symbolism in the dedicatorynies.”42 Yet, in 1906 the public saw none ofstead, according to the same reporter, “thenies, however, were very simple; the onlyat at all resembled Orientalism being thetunicof SwamiTrigunatita, expounder,mis-and lecturer of the Vedanta philosophy.”43

re was a reason why the Filbert Street fa-ke of difference and visibility. Although thebrochures claimed this as self-evident, onlypersons must have actually comprehendedstic significance of the unfamiliar architec-cade and its eclectic forms. Prior expertge was necessary to identify the inaccurategs of these architectural styles and the lackofal precedents. But no expertise was needed

to remanyples oFilbeThefeelinexpepearducinthe Ain histhemall Cous kiddanta…Nojokesevenhaun

dication of First Hindoo Temple.”d.

44 CirCow Hollohttp://ww/5887730


nd to the temple’s unique foreignness. Toho had never seen aHindu temple or exam-riental buildings, the temple facade along

Street opened up imaginative possibilities.of seeing the spectacular facade evokedtransforming how people construed andnced the building. TheVedanta Temple ap-novel and enigmatic, simultaneously pro-alienation, amazement, and attraction inerican layperson. Walter de Vecchi writesemoirs, “Without doubt the most awesome,t spooky, themost spine-tingling curiosity inHollow [was] that which frightened ‘most’ ofthemost.’ I describe none other than the Ve-emple #1. Well I’ve always tried to forget it!ven the biggest clown among us ever madeout its weird signs and magic symbols; note bravest among us ever dared to trespass its, threatening soil.”44

lexander John Greenlaw, Lotus Mahal, Hampi (Vijayanagar) Bellary District, photo ca.outh and South East Asian Collection © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.)

culating photocopy, Walter de Vecchi, “My Memoirs ofw,” 1966, 7, California Historical Society, San Francisco,w.worldcat.org/title/my-memoirs-of-cow-hollow/oclc8.



Theastery aclose mlived. Thduplexand 5).

rtd ineeoues.

Fig. 7. F


Webster Street entrance led into the mon-nd living quarters where the swami, hisonastic disciples, and married memberse entrance foyer resembled local Victorianes and apartment buildings (see figs. 2In the Webster Street facade, unlike the

Filbetainetial zothe Wstandfacad


Street one, Victorian order was main-n the additions to the upper-floor residen-. Compared to the Filbert Street elevation,bster Street residential elevation did nott as visually distinct from the surrounding

ilbert Street entrance after renovations, photo 1910.



Thiscause oand skitext. Actional laon a systIn the cbays runtrance ilocatedwas sligThe intto Websture. Htemplethe chaStreet, acreatedure9 (anarrowting WeThe largstairwaytemple zresidenback-to-

By Aing, thefloor, aneven mnew temfrom Hbuildingnew adbuildinmembehad “a land batnience.Yet theandmoorate b(fig. 11)houses,the thircuspedan arcadnot be s

add amas. Appine wves, orishirsi

naaneryo tosvisitecg

henatap

he90ngn Siznoesctuonrnan

Arthe

14thdidar

45 Anture in SanSee also Rtional Dwe

46 Bro

Ibid.In October 1907 he spoke before a religion class at the


residence-temple duality was possible be-f a clever reconfiguration of the corner plotllful manipulation of its architectural con-cording to Anne VernezMoudon, the tradi-yout of the San Francisco Victorian is basedemof bays set against the street line (fig. 8).45

ase of buildings located on a corner plot, theperpendicular to the street on which the en-

s located. Although the Vedanta Temple wason a corner plot, the layout of the buildinghtly modified to create two separate zones.ernal bays of the residence, perpendicularter Street, maintained the Victorian struc-owever, these bays did not extend into theand chapel portion of the building. Instead,pel had a separate entrance along Filbertnd its interior plan with deep roof beamsa large open space. The first-floor plan in fig-longwith fig.8, top) shows the two zones. Twobays with circulation and living spaces abut-bster Street constituted the residential zone.e public hall along Filbert Street and a sideleading to the first-floor terracemade up theone. The building was conceived as a privatece and a public temple—two independent,back buildings sharing a common wall.pril 1908, two years after its original open-society had expanded the temple, added admade the architecture more eclectic andore sensational than before (fig. 10). Theple, with its architectural elements takenindu, Moorish, Russian, and Europeanstyles, was impossible to miss. Most of the

ditions were on the eastern section of theg. According to Ernest C. Brown, a societyr and temple resident, the “new” third floorarge front living room, kitchen, bedroom,hroom, all fitted with every modern conve-It was in every way amodern living space.”46

impression from the outside was different,dern living quarters were hidden by an elab-reezeway that added to the visual exotica. Fish-scale shingles, common on Victorianimbricated the wall and roof surfaces ond floor and terrace above. The multifoilarches rose above spindly columns, creatinged breezeway all around. The rooms couldeen from the street because of the arcade;

insteducethatfloorthe udrawdencthe “lightMooby annorthInterban lthe vway tand ptionarchiegy in

Texteraccepand aing tBy 1leadiphy iorganfromstudichiteself-cEastethe S

TheInau

A 19vealstionsimil

47

48

ne Vernez Moudon, Built for Change: Neighborhood Architec-Francisco (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1986), 70, 52–96.enee Y. Chow, “House Form and Choice,” TDSR [Tradi-llings and Settlements Review] 9 (Spring 1998): 55–59.wn, “The Work of Swami Trigunatita,” 23.

University26, 1907,ater on AGolden GTrigunatita

49 NeSan FrancNorthern


, the architecture of the colonnade pro-visual illusion of lightness and buoyancyde the roof seem to hover over the lowert night, when the veranda lights came on,er floor seemed luminescent and ethereal,g attention from afar. The modern resi-as all but invisible. Instead the viewer sawranda lighted at night by many electricrnamented its full length with pillars andarches of Oriental design, and protected

on railing running all around the east andde.”47 In 1915, during the Panama-Pacifictional Exposition, the temple became an ur-dmark, and its exotic architecture becamesymbol of San Francisco’s claim as the gate-he Orient. The city advertised this building,tcards of the building were sold to exposi-tors. For members of the Vedanta Society,tural visibility became an important strat-aining acceptance in the United States.addition also may have been influenced byl factors, including increasing visibility andnce of the organization in San Franciscoopular interest in Eastern cultures preced-Panama-Pacific International Exposition.7 Swami Trigunatita was recognized as aproponent and scholar of Vedanta philoso-an Francisco. Despite infighting within hisation, he received recognition for his workrthern California academic and religiouscircles.48 The intensive use of Oriental ar-ral motifs in the building addition was afident way to express emerging Hindu andspirituality as a tangible and visual reality inFrancisco skyline.

chitectural Additions and Theirntic Mimicry

article from the San Francisco Chronicle re-at the building materials used in construc-not match those used in India to build

religious edifices.49 For instance, during

of California, Berkeley. He returned on Novemberto speak to a larger crowd in the University’s Greek The-ryan mythology of India. In May 1909 he spoke to theate branch of the Theosophical Society. Burke, Swami, 192.wspaper clippings, “First Temple of Cult to Be Built in U.S.,”isco Examiner, December 28, 1914, Vedanta Society ofCalifornia Archives.



the 190cious mwas constone. Yornamechosen

usresher oiner

Fig. 8. FiAdapted(Cambri


8 expansions, instead of marble, onyx, pre-etals, and gems, the San Francisco templestructed out of locally available wood andet the report argued that minarets, towers,nts, and architectural details were carefullyfor their symbolism. The exotic facade drew

curiolectu

TowneBuildbuild


people into the chapel during prayers and.architect of the temple was Joseph Leonard,f the San Francisco and Suburban Homeg Company, a well-known San Franciscowhose work in the East Bay and Alameda

rst- and second-floor plans superimposed on the bay layout of San Francisco Victorians.from Anne Vernez Moudon, Built for Change: Neighborhood Architecture in San Franciscodge, MA: MIT Press, 1986), 70. (Drawing, Arijit Sen.)



includehis archwithHinmost de

Folloterracedomedclaimedchitectuexactly trectly ova crenepublishmentedeast co

nalfrrer aofealliane thir.r toths (shod

50 PraLeonard,declared hlearned frA Saint of105. I sussuggestedwith IndiaLeonard’s

Fig. 9. E


d suburban housing developments. Despiteitectural expertise, Leonard was unfamiliardu and Indian cultures.50 The swamimadecisions regarding architectural styles.wing the 1908 additions, the third-floorbecame a crowded display of a variety oftowers (fig. 12). Two of the new towersstylistic and visual references to Eastern ar-ral traditions, yet none of them conformedo those precedents. The southeast tower di-er the entrance to the residential wing hadllated pattern that, according to a guideed by the temple, resembled the battle-parapets of European castles. The north-rner tower, called the Shiva tower and

origiliftedaftertoweformtranca phmaleinsidmandtowetops,dome

Ain am
onal basthe temprecedeinDaksh
vrajika Madhavaprana writes that “the architect, Mr.and the swami worked closely together, and Mr. Leonarde learned more from Swami Trigunatita than the swamiom him.” Pravrajika Madhavaprana, “Swami Trigunatita:Our City,” Prabuddha Bharata 114 ( January 2009): 95–pect that many of the stylistic details of the temple wereby the swami since Leonard did not have any experiencen architecture. I have not uncovered any evidence offamiliarity with Indian architectural styles.

51 PamVedanta SNorthern196–203,


ly located on the second floor terrace, wasom its original location to the third floornovation. The temple guide described thes symbolic of the Hindu deity Shiva. Thethe tower and the elaborate trellised en-was supposed to resemble a shiva lingam,c symbol on a flat base representing thed female principals of creation. The spaceis tower was used as a Shiva temple, or shivaAlthough the temple brochure claimed thisbe architecturally similar to Indian templee dome was more onion-like than templeshikhara) from India.51

orter tower with an arched windowwas builtified South Bengal aat-chala style on an octag-e, rather than the usual square base. Althoughple guide refers to formal architecturalnts from Bengal such as the Shiva templesineswar or theKali Ghat temple inCalcutta,

xterior facade skin wrapped around interior spaces. (Drawing, Andy Blaser.)

phlet, San Francisco Vedanta Society, The San Franciscoociety and Hindu Temple, ca. 1908, Vedanta Society ofCalifornia Archives, quoted in Burke, Swami Trigunatita,367–73.



the Sanviates mfinial ontrident,Hindu,practice

Theterrace,one of tversionoverlappTemplechitectuthe bulbresembdid the

aaloe ltacrvtoncomistueofnseturs,hep

Fig. 10.

52 Bro


Francisco temple tower’s octagonal plan de-arkedly from its references (fig. 13). Thetop of this tower, with a crescent, sun, andrepresented an unusual fusion of Islamic,and pagan Roman symbols—not commonin India.dome on the western end of the third-floorsupposed to be “an exact reproduction ofhe temples of Benares,” is a highly stylizedof the elongated beehive-shaped tower withing layers that is part of theKashi Vishwanathbuilt in the North IndianNagara style of ar-re (fig. 14, and see fig. 12, left).52 However,ous garlic shape on the Vedanta Templeled Islamic petaled domes more than ittemple tower of Benares.

Smwingtrancan atconsetowerentrathe da chrmosqstylea “coof nadomeover tposed

wn, “The Work of Swami Trigunatita,” 24. 53 The


ll-scale changes were made in the westernng Filbert Street, too. The Filbert Street en-ed to a one-story public worship chapel withhed storeroom, flower room, and terraceatory. A square box-like, stunted bell-shapedpped by a dome sat atop the Filbert Streete (see fig. 10). The temple guide claimede to be reminiscent of “a bell-tower of

ian church, and like a little mahomedan, and which has a gross partial miniaturethe great Taj-Mahal of Agra,” used here asrvatory, thus representing a partial symbole and of natural growth.”53 As for the otherthe proportions of the Taj Mahal–like domeFilbert Street entrancediffered from its sup-rototype.

[R. J.] Waters and Co., San Francisco, temple from Filbert Street after renovations.

San Francisco Vedanta Society and Hindu Temple.



UnlHindu twere mseams. Tinabilityavailablaffectedabsence

, thrams (fruouomts

54 Inpairs. Patcframing b

Fig. 11.


ike the masonry corbeling of traditionalemples in India, the Vedanta Temple towersade of sheet metal welded together alonghe choice ofmaterial reflected the builder’sto use Indian building techniques, and thee materials modified the towers’ shapes andspatial experiences in these spaces.54 In theof Indianmaterials, techniques, and knowl-

edgeand fformthe stfromthe dheigh

2009 these terrace domes were in urgent need of re-hes covered leaking, rusted sheeting, and the interiorattens had been damaged with frequent water leaks.

The largehave beenarchitect’smaterials


e domes were made of a formwork of woodes covered with a skin tomimic the circularig.15). The separation between the skin andcture produced a false sense of spaciousnesstside. In reality, the rooftop shrines underes were intimate spaces with low ceilingresulting from the double structure. The

Third-floor breezeway.

corroding, gaping holes in the metal sheets may notthere in 1908, but the deterioration clearly shows theand building contractor’s inexperience in using thesein these forms.



odd conNovembmonasteious pla

Whaimitatiocribed stechnolity to reciety plastructurStreet fcenturyspite its

owinuitrkee

55 See“Minutes onia,” vol. 1Northern

Fig. 12.

Similar use of symbols via architecture is associated with thisus group in other instances. Thirty years after the construc-f the San Francisco temple, the Ramakrishna Temple atIndia, was built. Consecrated in 1938 from plans and ideasted by the founder of the organization in 1899, the Rama-a Temple was another eclectic edifice in which architectured to make a symbolic statement of unity. Unlike the Vedantae, the Ramakrishna Temple was a mixture of multiple archi-l styles found in India. The motifs were taken from Buddhists and monasteries, North Indian Nagara-style temple archi-, Rajput and Indo-Sarcenic architecture from the western


struction also created leaks, and as early aser 1, 1909, Ernest C. Brown wrote in thery minutes that the “ceiling still leaks in var-ces from the roof above.”55

t generated these imperfect architecturalns? Their mimetic dissonance cannot be as-olely to the unavailability of materials andogies in America or to the architect’s inabil-produce accurate facsimiles. Rather, the so-ced importance on visual symbolism overal practicality. Encountering the Filbertacade of the temple in early twentieth-San Francisco raises further questions. De-overall form, with Victorian motifs and bay

windbuildantiqto mathat s

56

religiotion oBelur,generakrishnwas useTempltecturatempletecture

November 1, 1909, entry in Ernest C. Brown, handwrittenf the Monastery, Hindoo Temple, San Francisco, Califor-, June 3, 1908–December 1916, 79, Vedanta Society ofCalifornia Archives.

states, thetemples, thstyles. In eAngeles teuniting di


s, why was it important for themakers of thisg to promote this architectural “idea ofy?”56 Selectively reviving the past seemedthis building as alien, a blatant exhibitionmed out of place at a time when negative

[R. J.] Waters and Co., San Francisco, terrace shrines added in 1908.

fusion of Mughal and vernacular traditions in Bengale thatched roofs of local huts, and South Indian templeach of these temples (and others, such as the 1938 Losmple), architectural styles served a symbolic function ofsparate cultural systems.



reportsin Califanswerbers ofHindufaith anthe societheir hesymbolsrather thism seeforgottHindu c

In 1… was wofNazar

oryee

onAniu cccomoeringllHeonm

Fig. 13. P(© Illust

57 AgnOverland Minclude EReview of“The Hind1157–60;Problem,”Gonzalesthe Sikh C20 (Spring


of Hindu religious practices were discussedornia’s Christian and popular media.57 Anto that questionmay lie in the way themem-the Vedanta Society addressed the anti-media reports. Instead of defending theird practices by countering the media reports,tymembers turned themedia arguments onad. Yes, they agreed, Hinduism and Hinducertainly seemed foreign to Americans. Butan being alien to Western culture, Hindu-med alien because Western societies haden its roots. The Vedantists argued thatulture was the root of Western civilization.906 Swami Trigunatita wrote that “our Gitaritten 2,000 years before the birth of Jesuseth; yet inmanyplaces in your new testament

the w2,000ligionreligiagingrecogHind

ArentNorthexplaaddinas weical. “religiman
as wellSo he inand brerance [smooththe wor
es Foster Buchanan, “TheWest and the Hindu Invasion,”onthly 51, no. 4 (April 1908): 308–12. Other examples

. M. Wherry, “Hindu Immigrants in America,” Missionarythe World 30 (December 1907): 918; Werter D. Dodd,u in the Northwest,” World Today 13 (November 1907):Fred Lockley, “The Hindu Invasion: A New ImmigrationPacific Monthly (May 1907): 584–95. See also Juan T.

Jr., “Asian Indian Immigration Patterns: The Origins ofommunity in California,” International Migration Review1986): 40–54 n. 5.

58 “Re59 Ma


ds are identical with that of the Gita ofars before.”58 By arguing that theHindu re-ncompassed and was the basis of all worlds and cultures, the Vedantists were encour-mericans to see, experience, possess, andze a series of hybrid icons and artifacts ofulture as familiar objects.rding to Pravrajika Madhavaprana, a cur-nastic member of the Vedanta Society ofn California, San Francisco, the swami haded to a close disciple that his reasons forarchitectural elements, such as the towersas the American eagle, were psycholog-knew that prejudice against other peoples,s, and cultures, was deep-seated in the hu-ind, and this bad trait would hurt othersas impede an individual’s spiritual growth.troduced some of thesemethods ‘to disarmak down prejudice and bigotry, and igno-in order to] harmonize and make the pathfor those who would follow and carry onk.’”59 The building was marked with Hindu

. Grenier, “The Kali Ghaut, Calcutta,” Illustrated London News, no. 2531 (October 22, 1887): 498.rated London News Ltd./Mary Evans.)

sident Priest Tells of Faith”; Burke, Swami Trigunatita, 177.dhavaprana, “Swami Trigunatita,” 105.




Fig. 14. Tand EasteCollectio

emple of Vishveshwar, Benares, India, 1899. From James Fergusson, History of Indianrn Architecture (London: J. Murray, 1899), fig. 258, 460. (Printed Book and Periodicaln, Winterthur Library.)

This content downloaded from 129.89.24.43 on Thu, 21 Nov 2013 09:13:36 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions


symbolshybrid ian arguSwamispringband hentainheatian mdegenethat hadeven ChHindusymbolithe stagpromotfundam

Mosout of stions, amissionIndia wcounts o

rtsichs ogiedonarndinginof scoastouw,, azinonensoeraredisr mt wfoutiv

edged tates.hey dic oigr

60 The

Fig. 15.frame co

Quoted in Harold Robert Isaacs, Scratches on Our Minds:an Views of China and India (Armonk, NY: Sharpe, 1980), 262.Charles ClaytonMorrison, “Enthusiasm and Sanity,” Christian19 ( January 30, 1902):9. See also description ofHinduism in

ations such asWoman’s ForeignMissionary Society of the Pres-n Church (Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.); Women’s For-issionary Society of the Presbyterian Church,Hospitals in Indiaelphia:Woman’s ForeignMissionary Society of the Presbyterian, 1908), http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HMS.COUNT:991752sed October 21, 2013).In 1907 British revenue policy, land reform, and politicalought about economic hardship for the farmers of Punjab.olicies of the British government set off a large-scale migra-f young unemployed men to cities in search of jobs. Manyi villagers applied for jobs in the British Indian Army butnot get a job with the armed forces. As a result, there was an the number of immigrants from India to the United States.n 1891 and 1900 the total number of Indians who officiallyd the United States, according to immigration records, wasight. Between 1901 and 1910, the total number spiked to


as well as American ones, pointing toward adentity. The temple architecture supportedment of religious autochthony made byTrigunatita—that Hindu religion was theoard for all other religions and civilizationsce the original spiritual and cultural foun-d.60 Such an argument countered theChris-edia ’s criticism that Hinduism was arated and inappropriate form of religionno place in North America by arguing thatristianity was a subset and outgrowth of

spiritual thought. Hence, the architecturalsm of the new additions in conjunction withed experience of encountering the facadeed the idea that Hindu culture shared theentals of American values and culture.t criticism against Hindu traditions cameensational accounts of culture, supersti-nd religious practices written by Christianaries in their journals. Many returned fromith stories of their visits, often biased ac-f pagan religious practices. Typical of these

educState

Tposelpublimm

61

Americ62

CenturypublicbyteriaeignM(PhiladChurch(acces

63

acts brThe ption oPunjabcouldspike iBetweeenteresixty-e

San Francisco Vedanta Society and Hindu Temple.

4,713. W.Public PoliQueen’s U


is one in theChristian Centurydating to 1905Hinduism is described as “debauched withf lust and blood. … Many of the Indian de-ven to lustful amours, are especially wor-by the people. … It is not surprising thatin India is not only divorced frommoralityried to vice.…Much indecency exists in In-er the guise of religion, many of the templegirls are merely consecrated prostitutes,

many cases respectable women are led tohame.”61 These accounts encouragedmon-ntributions toward proselytizing efforts infrom the lay congregations at home. Chris-rnal articles, such as the Methodist QuarterlyMissionary Herald, Missionary Review of thend the more secular Hampton-Columbiane, ironically increased the profile of Easterns in America. In 1902 an article in the Chris-tury expressed the fear that “the susceptibil-manywomen’s culture clubs to the teachingssonal influence of Hindu ‘Swamis’ who, hav-ticipated in the Parliament of Religions re-in this country to lecture on their occultsignificant of the credulity of vast portionsost intelligent citizenship.”62 That com-

as directed toward Swami Vivekananda,nded the Vedanta Societies, and despite itse tone, the article nevertheless acknowl-he popularity of this movement among thed elite, especially women, in the United

renovated facade of the temple was pur-esigned to respond to negative media andpinion in California following increasedation from India after 1906.63 The years

repoin whdeedities,shippreligibut mdia udancandlivesetarythe Etian jRevieWorldMagareligitian City ofand ping pmainfaith,of oumenwhonega

Interior view of a terrace tower showing wood-nstruction, photo 2009. (Arijit Sen.)

Peter Ward, White Canada Forever: Popular Attitudes andcy toward Orientals in British Columbia (Montreal: McGillniversity Press, 1990), 79; Jensen, Passage from India.



1907 anthe Wesmobs aWashinin Evereof violendents webut occperspecof the OIndian astudentferent tascholarwith othdanta Twith detucated Ipriestsof Hind“only prtism. He“the moof life aancientperior hThe verered, anperfectform oflogic of

Mukwere rethe orgatime thebol of tinversioarchitecbut rathspirituathe comEuropeversalityall otherIn otheparate borigin mclaimed“ancienGangetSan Fra

n itrultomforheionracinthweerll fspiernntpuimgeveh hras.Inaedrytam, indheionicecas, annoals tpercoiniryamof

64 Gir51 (April

“The Prospectus,” Voice of Freedom 1 (October 1909): i.The San Francisco Vedanta Society and Hindu Temple ; Burke,Trigunatita, 367–73.Kamakshi P. Murti, India: The Seductive and Seduced “Other”an Orientalism (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2001), 1–10;


d 1908were difficult forHindu laborers ont Coast. On September 5, 1907, local whitettacked immigrant homes in Bellingham,gton. In November five hundred workerstt attacked local Indian laborers in a nightce. Media reports of these anti-Indian inci-re often biased in favor of the perpetrators,asionally articles reflecting the immigranttive appeared in some journals. In an issueverland Monthly that carried a scathing anti-rticle by Agnes Foster Buchanan, an Indiannamed Girindra Mukerji offered a very dif-ke on Indian culture. A student and Indianat theUniversity of California,Mukerji liveder Indian students from Berkeley in the Ve-emple in 1909. In his article he disagreedractors such as Buchanan, referring to ed-ndian and Hindu students and the Hinduof the Vedanta Society as the new facesuism and Indian culture, locating India’side and glory” in philosophy and in Vedan-argued that the Vedantic philosophy wasst rational of all intellectual conceptionsnd death.”64 Mukerji’s rhetoric reclaimedHindu religious philosophy as a sign of su-eritage and rational, intellectual prowess.y culture that Buchanan criticized, rediscov-d traced back to its origins, was posited as aexemplar. Mukerji’s was a very powerfulautoethnographic text that inverted thenativists.erji’s references to symbolism and historypeated in Vedanta Society pamphlets andnization journal called Voice of Freedom. Thisarchitecture of the temple became a sym-

his resurgent “past knowing” and semioticn. The analogy emphasized that the eclectictural elements were not a sign of contrarietyer symbols of variations within an all-inclusivel system. According to the Voice of Freedom,bination of Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, andan architectural elements reflected the uni-of Hindu Vedantic traditions from whichworld religions and cultures had emanated.r words, these arguments appropriated dis-uilding traditions by construing a “commonyth.” In 1909 the prospectus of the journalthat because Vedanta was the religion of ant race of Aryans” who had migrated to theic planes of North India in antiquity, thencisco Vedanta Society and the practices

withiof theand clar, fr“the

Ttraditwithbuildmentgion“betttice aern,WestgumeusedAsianmiscehowewhicwhiteState

Indharmand Vthe AOrientive aIndia(founand tnizatpractfice,tion)wereoriginargueof susametermcentu

Swalogy

65

66

Swami67

of Germ

indra Mukerji, “The Hindu in America,” Overland Monthly1908): 303–8.

Dorothy FMyths of Id

68 RomThree Ess


ts Hindu temple were therefore “organ[s]ue explanation and practice of all thoughtsure, ancient or modern, spiritual and secu-the standpoint of the Aryans,” who were

efathers of the whole human race.”65

mention of Aryan antiquity and Vedantas brings forth a problematic issue associatedial autochthony. The architecture of theg became part of a carefully crafted argu-at claimed that followers of the Hindu reli-re the true and original Aryan descendants,qualified to defend, to explain, and to prac-aiths, ancient or modern, Eastern or west-ritual or materialistic.”66 In the context ofhistory, the racist underpinnings of this ar-are clear.67 The Aryan argument was beingblicly in the United States to argue againstmigration, for racial purity, and againstnation. The Vedanta Society pamphlets,r, used the term “Aryan” in the Indian sense,ad little to do with its connotations ofcial privilege and citizenship in the United

dia arya-sanskriti (Aryan culture) and arya-(Aryan religion) are references to Vedicantic culture and practices. By the 1900san origin of Vedic religions suggested bylist scholars was already an accepted narra-ong the reform religious movements including the Vedanta Society. Arya Samaj

ed in 1875), Brahmo Samaj (1828–30),Ramakrishna Mission were religious orga-s whose goal was to reformHindu religiouss of polytheism, iconolatry, animal sacri-te and untouchability, sati (widow immola-d child marriage, arguing that these ritualst original and lacked the sanction of theVedic principles. Historian Romila Thaparhat the term “Aryan” was used as a markerior social status in India but not within thentext of social Darwinism and biological de-sm framing the nineteenth- and twentieth-race discourse in the West.68

i Trigunatita was aware of the racist gene-this discourse in the West. In a speech in

igure, Aryans, Jews, Brahmins: Theorizing Authority throughentity (New York: University Press of New York, 2002).ila Thapar, The Aryan Recasting Constructs (Gurgaon, India:

ays Collective, 2008).



1911 hean Aryaof race

Fromwhand refinWhite, scidea of wman (anresent sudistinctioferencesvanishedality, to wthey belo

Unitedness usinwere avtakers cnote, thdians wHindus”white rthe autdescenttion disdifferenterminethe appsion on

In 1rejectioin the N“BritishCountriBonapasian stocbecomespecialstock acars of altheir intStates?”Akay Kuheld thder the

23ocheityy todIn, olthinrealsiti90slyy SInitee oart mwhhech

e eteaspoene bploricemetiheterciscctuiendy ceded

69 SwFrancisco:

70 SeeThirteenthGPO, 191

71 TaMen’s Coletter fromSeptembeWashingto

In 1923 Bhagat Singh Thind used Das’s argument to de-


carefully explained that his references ton past were not the same as the discoursesand color prevalent in the United States.

om, and from where, have you got [sic] the highered ideas of white race, and of white color? …ientifically, is the union of colors. So, when thehite is practically applied to the inner life ofd not simply to the skin), it becomes a sign to rep-ch a race of mankind in whom there is no moren of colors and creeds; in whom all the latent dif-between nationalities and religions, have already; in whom all brethren, nomatter to what nation-hat caste or color, to what thought or culture,ng, are really one.69

States government agencies defined white-g very different criteria. Six racial categoriesailable in the 1910 census, and the censuslassified Asian Indians as “others.” In a foot-e census takers clarified that although In-ere “ethnically white,” these “pure-bloodeddid not fit the “popular conception” of the

ace. This popular conception, explainedhors, referred to Caucasians of European. India, they argued, represented a civiliza-tinct from Europe.70 Rules were appliedtly in courts where court clerks often de-d status by looking at the skin color oflicant and them making a subjective deci-race.906 Taraknath Das complained about then of his citizenship application in Californiaew York Outlook, in an open letter titledIndians and Citizenship in White Men’ses.” Das asked Attorney General Charles J.rte if “the Hindus who belong to the Cauca-k of the Human Race have no legal right tocitizens of the United States, under what

law, the Japanese who belong to a differentcording to the statements of various schol-l parts of the world, are allowed to declareentions to become the citizens of theUnited71 In the 1910 U.S. v. Balsara and the 1913mar Mozumdar decisions, the US courts

at Indians were eligible for citizenship un-1790 law because they were Caucasians.

By 19equiv

TidenttunitUniteuatedsition

AyansVedicjournand cIn a 1ymouten bfroma whwe aralonerecention,ogy t

Suin thin thethat wdisapdermfacadreemesoteThe tterpr

Tlic inFranchiteof Orhe haple bthe Vneed

72

ami Trigunatita, The Essential Doctrines of Hinduism (SanSan Francisco Vedanta Society, 1911), 4–5.US Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census,Census of the United States, 11 vols. (Washington, DC:3), 1:125–26, footnote to table 2.raknath Das, “British Indians and Citizenship in Whiteuntries,” Outlook 87 (September 7, 1907): 7–8. See alsoTaraknath Das to Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte,r 21, 1907, file 97415, RG 118, National Archives,n, DC.

mand natuagreed anand the brof antiquiunmistakUnited Shttp://su

73 “An30. This shimself hUnited St


the US Supreme Court weighed in, un-ally ruling that Indians were not white.72

ambiguities in the way race, whiteness, andwere understood provided a unique oppor-legitimize the presence of Hindus in the

States. The references to Aryan ancestry sit-dians in a liminal and ambiguous racial po-pening up possibilities of passing as white.oughmany of the religious references to Ar-the Vedanta Society documents related toligion and texts, some articles in the Vedantaaddressed the racial logic of naturalizationzenship in the United States very directly.9 story, “Ancient Nation,” published anon-in the Voice of Freedom but presumably writ-wami Trigunatita describing his own tripdia, a brown Indian protagonist argues withanti-immigrant nativist, “We know whetherf genuine white race or not; Brahmanase the white race. We are watching, throughovements concerning foreign naturaliza-

at display of their knowledge of Anthropol-members of the US congress will make.”73

autoethnographic inversions continuedxplanation of the architectural details usedmple. It was a sense of familiar-yet-differentintrinsically a part of the process of “stagedintment.” After that initial moment of won-t, the architecture of the newHindu templeecame a place where familiar images wereyed to comprehensibly translate otherwiseideas of Hindu identity and difference.ple facade became part of symbolic and in-ve translations of existing stereotypes.swami took advantage of the increased pub-est in Eastern architecture to convince Sano city officials that the Vedanta Temple ar-re best represented the enduring influencetal architecture on the city skyline. By 1907secured tax exemptions for the entire tem-onvincing the bureaucrats in City Hall thatanta Society was a spiritual center thattheir support. In the same year he obtained

ralization into the United States. This time the court dis-d ruled that “it may be true that the blond Scandinavianown Hindu have a common ancestor in the dim reachesty, but the averageman knows perfectly well that there areable and profound differences between them today.”tates v. Bhagat Singh Thind, 261 U.S. 204 (1923),preme.justia.com/us/261/204/case.html.cient Nations,” Voice of Freedom 1 (December 1909): 129–tory may be autobiographical since Swami Trigunatitaad undertaken a similar journey when he sailed for theates from India.



permisscense.74

sold asthe engwhatheimages ften instrto remothe thirdon the boff the sof the te

In adthe temboard. Aof its imcame visthe builobjectsnatita stthe temFourth oMay 6, 1throughvisited t

By19Call undture in Sployed tones ofproud sfrom th

DuriExpositduringexpositstrategylowed su

thelest suil

74 Simboard oftwo feet frgued thatExpositionness of thehigh retaithe same

75 Quthe backSociety of

76 BuTrigunatit

77 “FaFrancisco C

78 Thscheme foCarefully

6.ews


ion to sell Vedanta books without a sales li-A postcard showing the Vedanta Temple

a city souvenir (fig. 16). The swami askedraver to embellish photographs to producethoughtweredesiredeffects andappropriateor an American audience. He left handwrit-uctions on the back of original photographsve the gaps between the wooden boards on-floor breezeways and to draw “some patternoards to look like a carpet design” or to “takehades from windows” from the photographrrace-top chapel (fig. 17, and see fig. 11).75

dition, the swami increased the visibility ofple by using the facade as an advertising bill-lready distinctly visible from afar as a resultposing size and architecture, the facade be-ible at night when temple residents adornedding with lights, flags, festoons, and colorfulduring special civic occasions. Swami Trigu-arted the tradition of flying the US flag onple during national holidays, such as thef July, or during special occasions, such as on908, when the Great White Fleet steamedthe Golden Gate or when President Taft

he city in 1909 (fig. 18).76

09 the temple appeared in the San Franciscoer the title, “Fancy and Fantastic Architec-an Francisco.” Stating that “this city has em-he ideas of all the world, and originated newits own,” the article listed the temple as atatement of innovation and reemergencee ashes of the earthquake.77

ng the 1915 Panama-Pacific Internationalion, the temple flew the appropriate flagvarious nation-day celebrations. Just as theion organizers used lighting as a primaryto create chimerical scenes, the swami fol-it.78 The lighted temple building was visible

fromtemptourithe b

Fig. 1ent Vi

ical circSwami.”

Santhing exdevelopTheosoand elitmeeting

ilarly, on August 9, 1912, after calling on the mayor andsupervisors, he obtained immediate permission to takeom the sidewalks adjacent to the temple. The swami ar-, in view of the upcoming Panama-Pacific International, the proposed landscaping would add to the attractive-temple and street. The society began work on a 3-foot-

ning wall for a garden with trees and flowering shrubs attime. Burke, Swami Trigunatita, 262–63.otations from a handwritten note with instructions onof the photograph in fig. 17, dated ca. 1910, VedantaNorthern California Archives.rke, Swami Trigunatita, 263; Madhavaprana, “Swamia.”ncy and Fantastic Architecture in San Francisco,” Sanall, January 31, 1909, 3.e General Electric Company designed the lightingr the Panama-Pacific International Exposition Company.hidden spotlights creating indirect and masked lighting

shone onbarge namsearchlighwas releasfog helpedComprehenInternationA. Reid, 1

79 Bu


exposition grounds at night. In this way thebecame a well-known city landmark andite, and Swami Trigunatita, as the owner ofding, became known among the city’s polit-les and the elected officials as the “Hindu79

Francisco visitors expected to see some-otic following the late nineteenth-centuryment of new religious movements such asphy and New Thought. Orientalist scholarse Anglo-Americans who regularly attendeds of NewThought, Theosophy, Unitarianism,

Postcard, San Francisco Vedanta Society, Differ-of the Hindu Temple, no. 10, 1909.

the buildings, producing a “fairyland” ethereal glow. Aed Scintillator in the San Francisco Bay carried forty-eightts to create a backdrop to the exposition buildings. Steamed into the atmosphere to reflect these lights, and the bayin this mystical lighting. Robert A. Reid, The Blue Book: A

sive Official Souvenir View Book Illustrating the Panama-Pacifical Exposition at San Francisco, 1915 (San Francisco: Robert915), 41.rke, Swami Trigunatita, 262–63.



and Chship, whand Bibon comtures in ton Comp

eli19

Fig. 17. [carpet-li

The American Oriental Society, formed in 1842, markedginning of scholarly interest in the religious traditionsEast. Transcendentalists such as Henry David Thoreau62) and Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) wrote on Eastern


ristian Science produced serious scholar-ile journals such as New World, Open Court,lical World published many academic worksparative religious studies. The American Lec-he History of Religions and theHaskell Lecturesarative Religions further popularized East-

ern rThe

80

the beof the(1817–


gion among the American intelligentsia.80

01 Theosophist building complex at Point

R. J.] Waters and Co., San Francisco, third-floor breezeway, photo retouched to showke pattern, photo ca. 1910.



Loma, Cple in ieclecticbuildingBrotherwere ladomes wthe daynight (fCalifornAsian, Eelementures andiverseTheoso

Theof archiof the twPanamacisco wEast.81 Oin thesethe decainterestsand pav

Thepublic istereotyAnglo c

eeduainulitiss.hers’siponoastheakchinndge

e ta

dilet sindg G

philosophEdward Saand HenryBuddhist rtury. Betwemid-twentwrote boophilosophon the His1901); Haof ChicagoChristy, TThoreau, aLegacy and

81 Thcommentwonderfuthe nationvery gatesand consePanama-Psition site,/ppietxt1

82 Forin the UnIndian Sty134–69. FZeynep Çeat the Exp35–59.


alifornia, was similar to the Vedanta Tem-ts local landmark status and architecturalism. Like the Vedanta Temple, the academyand Spalding residence in the Universal

hood and Theosophical Society complexndmarks seen far and wide, their largeith skylights brightening interiors duringand glowing with interior electric lights atig. 19). Built at Point Loma near San Diego,ia, in 1901, these buildings mixed Southgyptian, Victorian, and Greek architecturalts to promote the unity of these various cul-d to argue for a true amalgamation of thesethoughts in the teachings and practices ofphy.Vedanta Temple was a very early exampletectural eclecticism. During the first decadeentieth century and in anticipation of the-Pacific International Exposition, San Fran-as much discussed as the gateway to theriental architecture became fashionablediscussions. RaymondHead points out thatde of the 1920s saw the culmination of suchwith the building of residences,movie halls,ilions in the “Oriental style.”82

Vedantists claimed a place in San Franciscomaginations by using Western Orientalistpes as a way to open a dialogue. The layongregation, San Francisco white society,

the mthe Vspiritspeakskillfand cdiscu

Tvisitoat thedisapwereties bfact,werechurmentple aenga

Insidand M

HowtempStreeuse, aErvin
institutito explahumanzones insuch asformal,akin to sgagemechapel f
A visimmeditered a vstairs tocious, hraised aThe lonof destithe blindows crthe winlamps w

ies. “Orientalist” scholars from the United States, such aslisbury, William Dwight Whitney, Charles Rockwell Lanman,Clarke Warren, began to translate and study Hindu andeligious texts during the last half of the nineteenth cen-en the last decades of the nineteenth century through theieth century, Orientalist scholars of comparative religionks and manifestos on Hindu and Buddhist theology andical positions. See AmericanAcademy of Religion,Lecturestory of Religions (New York: Columbia University Press,skell Lectures in Comparative Religion (Chicago: UniversityPress, n.d.); Jackson, Vedanta for the West, 13; Arthur E.

he Orient in American Transcendentalism: A Study of Emerson,nd Alcott (New York: Octagon Books, 1932), and The AsianAmerican Life (New York: Greenwood, 1968).e Panama-Pacific International Exposition brochureed, “The proximity of the site to a world gateway is al advantage. Through the portals of the Golden Gates of the earth can bring their richest offerings to theof the Exposition, avoiding a long continental haulquent damage from reshipping.” Brochure from theacific International Exposition, description of the expo-San Francisco, 1915, http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist9

.html.a description of the popularity of Oriental architectureited Kingdom and the West, see Raymond Head, Thele (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986), 21–63,or a general discussion on Orientalist imaginations, seelik and Leila Kinney, “Ethnography and Exhibitionismositions Universelles,” Assemblage 13 (December 1990):

83 A rwas no sigTemple.”


dia, and city government acknowledgedantists’ right to talk about religion andlity with considerable legitimacy. Whileg of religion, the swami cautiously—andly—interjected issues of race, politics,zenship that he could not otherwise openly

Vedanta Society’s strategy depended onreactions following the initial wondermentght of the temple. The second stage was theinting realization that the interior spacest as exotic as expected nor were the activi-ed on Oriental mysticism and magic.83 Inpractices and behavior inside the chapelin to those in Protestant churches. This-like interior space transformed wonder-to reason and similitude by bringing in peo-making them feel comfortable enough towith the organization.

he Building: “Free from Any Worldlinessterial Desires; A Place of Holiness”

d American neophytes who entered theexperience the public chapel on the Filbertde? Unlike the facade, the chapel’s layout,ambience seemed familiar and reassuring.offman, in his work on behavior in social

ons, proposed the terms “front” and “back”in sociospatial domains produced duringinteractions in everyday life. Front and backthe Vedanta Temple separated domainsinside/outside, private/public, informal/and community/civic. These zones weretage sets, encouraging interactive social en-nts and influencing human behavior. Theunctioned as a front zone.itor did not see the public chapel and altarately upon entering. Instead, he or she en-ery dark zone andmounted a short flight ofa landing. To the left was the chapel, a spa-igh-ceilinged, light-filled room with theltar located at the farthest end (fig. 20).g perspective made the altar seem a pointnation, the warm wooden paneling andding light entering the north-facing win-eating a very bright interior. In addition todows, numerous pendant and hangingith multiple bulbs bathed the room with

eporter from the San Francisco Chronicle noted that theren of any Oriental mysticism. “Dedication of First Hindoo



ample lthe winhad a hsimple mthe walout sacfloor sloaccentu

thasts (weaiiditii V

Fig. 18.


ight. Experienced in sudden contrast todowless cave-like entrance, the chapeleavenly ambience. The high dado witholding was painted in a lighter color than

ls, creating a sense of spaciousness with-rificing intimacy. The linoleum-coveredped upward toward the back of the room,ating the focused experience of walking

downAt lechairtoo)six chrate s

InSwam


e carpeted central aisle toward the altar.one hundred solid, wood-backed foldableand a few spindle-backed nonfolding ones,re laid out on each side of the aisle, withrs per row and men and women on sepa-es.ally a photograph and later a painting ofivekananda, the founder of theRamakrishna

Temple decorated with US flags.



MissionUnitedimage,focal pohind a hthe chateakwooorgan saplants gplants won the f

A fukrishnaproducifront ofets, andnorth wdows, hin a yogtigers, aquote frness andSwamiJesus’sNazaretIf you athere ishad groings. Thin Indiaand auth

y iofL

imambei arethinameor,el.wareviswacaam

Fig. 19. T(San Die

“Resident Priest Tells of Faith”; Burke, Swami Trigunatita, 177.Nicolas Notovitch’s book, The Unknown Life of Jesus Christrepr., Radford, VA: Wilder, 2008), originally published inwas a travelogue of his trip to India via Kashmir and intoh in Tibet. While in Tibet, Notovitch claimed that a lamam of a story of someone called Issa, who came to India into study Hindu and Buddhist religion. Notovitch claims toeen historical manuscripts. Vedanta monks, such as Swamiananda, traveled to Tibet to discover the texts forming ther Notovitch’s claim.“Resident Priest Tells of Faith.”


in India and the Vedanta centers in theStates, hung on the eastern altar wall. Thecentrally aligned with the aisle, created aint. A door to the left of this portrait and be-igh-backed wooden altar chair connectedpel to the rectory. Altar vases, jardinieres,d taborets (small portable stands), and ant next to the altar. A large number of indoorave the altar a wild garden–like quality. Theere grown in a conservatory and greenhouseirst-floor terrace (fig. 21).ll-sized wall-to-ceiling painting of Sri Rama-, the patron saint, hung on the left altar wall,ng a second focal point. A smaller altar inthis painting sported a piano bench, tabor-a jardiniere with fresh flowers. On the

all, punctuated by the blindingly bright win-ung a painting of Jesus sitting cross-leggeda posture in the wilderness. Birds, rabbits,nd snakes sat around him, referring to aomMark 1:13, “He was there in the wilder-was with the wild beasts” (fig. 22). In 1906

Trigunatita wrote that Hindus respectedteaching and claimed that “the Jesus ofh of the Christians was educated in India.re familiar with his life you will know thata blank in his life from his youth until hewn to manhood, until he began his teach-ose years unaccounted for [were] passed. Nicolas Notovitch, the Russian exploreror, found amanuscript in an underground

librarJesusknownthis tthe swTibetswamNazanamemanythe swpanthOlivechapthat Spictu

Aof atwo foof Sw

84

85

(1890;1890,Ladaktold hiorderhave sAbhedbasis fo

86


n Tibet that told of the work and studies ofNazareth.”84 Notovitch’s claims in The Un-ife of Jesus Christ (1890) were popular duringe among Western Orientalist scholars, andi claimed that he came across this story infore he arrived in the United States.85 Thedded that Vedantists “believe in the Jesus ofh, but not as the Christians do. We do notim, and we believe him as only one of thecarnations of God.”86 By 1908, however,i had reclaimed Jesus as part of the Hindunby commissioning a lay devotee,Theodosiato paint a portrait of Jesus to hang in theCara French, in her reminiscence, claimsmi Trigunatita had a vision of this Tibetanof Christ.itor’s initial experience of the chapel wasrm and brightly lit room punctuated byl points centered on divine andholy imagesi Vivekananda and Sri Ramakrishna.

heosophical Society Homestead and Temple, Point Loma, California, photo ca. 1910–15.go History Center.)



Althougthe landlaid outperspecof the athe contion musiding schair on

Thefinanciablance tsimilarimimicrchurch-curious

TheinteriorflowersBrown,

e tof

ltalonntewetheoneithhttra, alacialin

eacgra

Fig. 20.

December 22, 1909, entry in Brown, “Minutes of the Mon-” 84.


h the ceiling was high, the perspective fromingmade the room intimate. Although notalong the central axis of the room, the longtive from the landing produced an illusionltar’s centrality. During ceremonies, whengregation filed in one by one, their atten-st have been caught by the sight of the pre-wami seated in the long-backed woodenthe altar.spartan interior may have been due to direl straits but nevertheless reduced its resem-o an ornateHindu temple and increased itsty to a neighborhood church interior. Thaty was intentional as the swami wanted alike layout in order to seem familiar to thepublic and novice members.only significant difference from a churchwas the abundance of potted plants and. On Christmas Day in 1909, Ernest C.a disciple, society chronicler, and resident

of thfront

The a6 feetin froOn ththe loand othe Mfromstraigthe enbeingholy pmaterarticleGod,by his

87

astery,


emple, described decorating an altar inthe painting of Christ:

r was a terraced platform about 3½ feet high,g, and about 3½ feet at the bottom. It was placedof the Yoga Picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. …upper shelf were placed fruits and flowers, onr shelves cakes, vegetables, cups, saucers, platesr dishes.… Flower pots were brought down fromastery roof and balcony and extended outwardser end of the altar in the shape of a fan with afront to form a garden in front of the Picture,nce in the center facing on the aisle.…The ideagarden in which the Lord, sits, in meditation, ae.In this garden were placed all kinds of offices, tools, books, kitchen utensils and every possibleservice in the temple that all be an offering toh with a deepmeaning, and all to be consecratedce to an increased usefulness for his work here.87

[R. J.] Waters and Co., San Francisco, interior of the public chapel.



The crebe oddbellishmwere poin Indiadian stagrew upences tohence smost uscense ptheologmade thtruly aVedantasmell; itis subtlyences toforest.

Thetectureship fochapel cpracticetentionatices fro

ls. De ee atioam

onchc cfrrsisfaaningdsati(exhediresadtedly ao pdold

Fig. 21.terrace.


ation of a “garden” inside a building mayfor an American church, but interior em-ents, such as the use of flowers and plants,pular in Ramakrishna Mission prayer hallsand middle-class homes in the eastern In-te of Bengal (where Swami Trigunatita). In addition, such spaces also made refer-paradise (a Judeo-Christian concept) anderved as a common reference point forers. The smell of flowers and burning in-roduced a subtle olfactory character. Itsical significance and sensory qualitiese garden interior of this “hybrid” chapellocus of cultural contact. Even today, theTemple chapel retains this characteristictransports us to a world whose uniquenessmarked by a sensorium that unites refer-the Garden of Eden with that of a Vedic

temple’s similarity was not only in the archi-of Christian churches but also in the wor-rmat. Worship in the first-floor publiclosely resembled Catholic Mass. Liturgicals for the weekend and evening services, in-lly called “the vespers,” were a mix of prac-m the Catholic Mass and selected Hindu

rituaon thto givgregathe swaratichurpubliferedcenteswamfloorsanglightsounsepartionand tan aulectu

IninitiaaratehadnUnitefrom


uring the vesper services, the swami stoodlevated wooden dais on the altar platformsermon. This separation between the con-n seated in chairs on the chapel floor andi standing on the altar resembled the sep-of the clergy and the congregation in a. This form of worship was unique to thehapel in the San Francisco temple and dif-om worship in the Ramakrishna Missionin India, where during evening vespersand devotees sat together on the aislecing the altar. The entire congregationd prayed together, accompanied by theof incense sticks, a ceremonial fire, andof bells and gongs. In India there was noon between the swami and the congrega-cept that the swamis sat in the front row),service had no designated leader facing

ence—such configurations were limited toonly.dition, as early as 1903 Swami Trigunatitaa rule that men and women should sit sep-cross the aisles during worship. Such a rulerecedent in other Vedanta centers across theStates, and this practice created oppositiontimers and bafflement frommembers and

[R. J.] Waters and Co., San Francisco, conservatory and greenhouse on first-floor



other mthis separeportsthis orga

Visitventedtions ofnegativmedia,servicesthe rectthe chavesperssteps atdoor atbecamemove diidentialbuildindown Fthroughsole con

wandvinoomtoheateesdes c. Cibeucea cplewa. Assn [xpctia

88 BuWest, 58.

89 Maence of wThese repAmericanWithout thas easy tarreproduct—alreadyseemed thReportersIndian swoutside thship withAmericanthe unsusDaggett aany attemor religioutional ideof Americ399–411Heathen GElizabethPutnam, 1West,” Nin

90 ThHobsbawmsame namthat seemproducedHobsbawm(Cambrid

91 SeeIndians anBuchanan51 (April 11910): 50;

92 Bu


onks.88 The likeliest reason for introducingration must have been in reaction to mediaquestioning the presence of Anglo women innization ledby a foreignandnonwhiteman.89

ors to the Vedanta Temple encountered in-traditions that responded to social condi-the period.90 Between 1906 and 1910, ase reports against Indians increased in thethe swami accordingly adjusted the vespersin the public chapel.91 In 1906 residents ofory used the door on the altar connectingpel to the ground floor of the rectory. Afterthey would “race down the aisle, take thetwo bounds and disappear through thethe back.”92 By the end of 1908, the swamithe only person who could use the door torectly between the sacred altar and the res-quarters. His new rule meant that otherg occupants had to exit the chapel, walkilbert Street, and enter their residencethe Webster Street door. By blocking thenection between the residence and chapel,

the sing athe libedrzone

Trecrecrednout,colorencedescrprodnatitTemside:dooruseleitatioShe ea sanand m
the “Suence.”94
Vedantabers toof amushas a sothis willwards areligiou

Themeetingembodiduced cthis plac

Mrs.in the sinitial ymixed athe praytrance dthe conmon intions toexited don the ater the

Haltbidding

rke, Swami Trigunatita, 259. See Jackson, Vedanta for the

ny media reports from this period mentioned the pres-omen members and their role in the Vedanta Society.orts claimed that white women were both bearers ofculture and, at the same time, susceptible and gullible.e protective presence of white men, women were viewedgets of Hindu swamis. In other words, the productive andive division of labor in society and women’s position in itquestioned in the unfolding suffrage movement—nowreatened by the heathen influences of foreign men.’ anxiety went beyond their fear of Hinduism or theami; they feared the increasing participation of womene domestic sphere. Reporters feared that this relation-foreign men would both destroy the institution of thefamily and sully the moral virtue and racial purity ofpecting, trusting Anglo women. In the formulation ofnd others, the United States was a “white nation,” andpt at interracial alliance within civic, economic, social,s institutions seemed to threaten the purity of this na-

ntity. See Mabel Potter Daggett, “The Heathen Invasiona,” Hampton Columbian Magazine 27 (October 1911):; Gross Alexander, “American Women Going afterods,” Methodist Quarterly Review 61 ( July 1912): 495–512;A. Reed, Hinduism in Europe and America (New York:914); Cornelia Sorabji, “Hindu Swamis and Women of theeteenth Century and After 112 (September 1932): 367.e phrase “invented traditions” was popularized by Eric

and Terence Ranger in their edited volume of thee. In this volume various authors argued that practicesto be traditional and derived from history are actuallyand invented in order to suit ideological purposes. Ericand Terence Ranger, eds., The Invention of Tradition

ge: Cambridge University Press, 1983).Dodd, “TheHindu in theNorthwest,” 1160; Das, “Britishd Citizenship in White Men’s Countries”; Agnes Foster, “The West and the Hindu Invasion,” Overland Monthly908): 313; “The ‘Filth of Asia,’”White Man 1, no. 2 (AugustBurke, Swami Trigunatita, 161.rke, Swami Trigunatita, 208.

93 Ibi94 Ibi95 Ibi


mi not only separated the domains of pray-living but also maintained strict privacy ofg spaces. Figure23 shows the swami’s office,, and support areas that served as the back

the adjoining public chapel.chapel’s carefully produced spatial qualitiesd a culturally sanctioned experience of sa-s that Americans understood. Interior lay-corations, materials, sounds, and wallontributed to the creation of this experi-ara French, a close disciple of the swami’s,d how a sanctified zone wasmarked and re-d in the temple’s front zone. “Swami Trigu-onstantly stresses the sacredness of theAuditorium. If wemust talk, not to do so in-it until we reached the sidewalk beyond thend [he] urged us not to dissipate in idle,chatter all the good derived from the med-session] or from listening to the lecture.”93

lained that according to Swami Trigunatitafied space was “free from any worldlinessterial desires; a place of holiness,” in whichpreme Spirit remained an abiding Pres-In the “Rules and Regulations GoverningCenters,” Swami Trigunatita asked mem-

“please try to avoid introducing any systemement, refreshment or any such thing thatcial aspect into Vedanta Centers. Becausebring in many troubles and desires after-nd will slowly take away the right spirit ofs culture from such centers.”95

front chapel was more than a functionalor prayer space. It was a territory where

ed practices and sensory experiences repro-ertain behaviors. The very act of being ine was expected to produce spiritual beings.Allan, another disciple whose notes areociety archives, mentioned that during hisears in San Francisco, Swami Trigunatitand socialized with the congregation afterers. After vespers he would stand at the en-oor and shake hands with the members ofgregation as they filed out, a practice com-Christian churches. In 1908, once the addi-the temple were completed, the swamiirectly into his residence through the doorltar instead of meeting the congregation af-vespers.ing the practice of shaking hands and for-the congregation from walking up to the

d., 175.d., 108.d.



altar diWesternattemptfor diffeformal tpersonarole ofany int

i, tesctann,d a

Fig. 22.

Ibid., 192.


d not represent a shift from stereotypicalto Eastern behavior. Rather, this was anto maintain multiple rules of engagementrent constituencies, some more public andhan others, but each producing a different. In the chapel the swami filled the formallecturer and officiating priest. By limitingimate and personal interaction with the

swammonicontabolicpersosacre

96


he formality of the chapel and vesper cere-was enhanced. It was not the swami’s humanthat was important in the chapel but his sym-d ceremonial role as facilitator, spokes-and teacher.96 The spiritual practices andmbience of the chapel were paramount.

Theodosia Oliver, Christ the Yogi painting in the public chapel.



These sthat mareligionthat therational

Thespace bbers ofof publiwithin tspatial gcomparpublic cfront annortheathat serShiva, i

ic cairbjhiprshromueso90dple os,. Uel,n rng

Fig. 23.

97 Jun


trategies worked since French commentedny Americans “leery of the strange Indianof Vedanta” would leave vespers reassuredceremonies in the temple were familiar,, and indeed “spiritual” in nature.97

experience of the temple’s residentialy selected disciples and established mem-the society contrasts with the experiencec interiors and reflects nuanced distinctionshe in-group. Figure 24 shows the variousradations of privacy inside the temple. Aison between the terrace shrine and thehapel demonstrates the difference betweend back zones. The third-floor room on thest corner under the double-onion domeved as a shiv-mandir, or shrine to the godn the back zone differed greatly from the

publno chship oWorsto woent funiqterm28, 1noisybrassspoklampfoodchapBrowthat e
ular, ifmissione 3, 1908, entry in Brown, “Minutes of theMonastery,” 22.

hapel in the front zone in that there wasseating (fig. 25). Instead, the altar andwor-ects were set on the linoleum-covered floor.pers had to squat, as is customary in India,ip.Other practices in this roomwere differ-the vespers held in the public chapel. Its

sensory experience was described by long-ciety member Ernest Brown in the February9, monastery minutes. The ceremony wasue to the chanting of prayers, beating ofates, and blowing of conch shells. Brownf prayers where the swami waved sacredand the devotees distributed sanctifiednlike the controlled formality of the publicterrace shrine practices as described byesembled prayer rituals in Indian templesaged the senses and the human body. Pop-exaggerated, accounts of shocked Westernaries returning from India describing the

Swami’s office, bedroom, and support areas adjoining the public chapel. (Drawing, Andy Blaser.)



strangenmentionwas noclosed topeningthese to

Theegy of stan examStephenan ethniand trabased oplay tharation.”requirejust its rty. ExplAmericaplistic aman agduringThe invinnovatVedanttheir so

teo

ine laheiolitiiduxtstrafad hs oeigr to. Wasit totoy 1e Vtiodion

98 Steand StrateJohn Allan

Fig. 24.


ess and carnality of Hindu practices oftened the same practices in a negative way. Itsurprise that terrace shrine worship waso the general public. During the temple’sceremony, the public was allowed to see

wers, but these tours were discontinued.temple’s renovation in 1908 and the strat-aged disappointment could be explained asple of creative references to ethnicity.Stern and JohnCicala write that “choosingc expression, applying it to diverse situations,nsmitting it through time and space aren decision making and community inter-t require a great deal of creativity and inspi-98 The Vedanta Society’s minority positiond the swami to constantly monitor and ad-elationship to the San Francisco communi-aining the changes above as a move towardn or Hindu traditions would be overly sim-nd would ignore the social context and hu-ency in transforming religious practicesthe first decade of the twentieth century.ented traditions point to the creativity andion that religious organizations such as thea Society exhibited when responding tocial and political context. These changes

reflecand mbuildin th

Tingenal poindivconteThisturalcauseforma formiliationincretempakin

Bof thgregainvitelocat

99

phen Stern, “Introduction,” in Creative Ethnicity: Symbolsgies of Contemporary Ethnic Life, ed. Stephen Stern andCicala (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1991), xii.

InFrancisco,Congregatganization1909. Bur


d internal and in-group pressures to changedify the activities and practices inside theg as well as macro conditions and politicsrger American and San Francisco society.strategy of staged disappointment was anus response to the racial, ethnic, and cultur-cs of the time, bridging the micro world ofals and their needs to the larger culturalof San Francisco and the Western world.tegy involved both changes in the architec-cade that visually engaged the viewer ander tomarvel as well as hybrid andmodifiedf spiritual practice in the interior that maden religious tradition seem increasingly fa-new American members of the congrega-hile the former was a move towardng alterity, the latter was a simultaneous at-make the rituals inside the building more

Christian ecclesiastical practices.908 the strategies had worked. Themessageedanta Society had spread, and the con-n had diversified. Swami Trigunatita wasto speak at various religious and seculars.99 Membership stabilized, and interest

Public and private spaces inside the temple. (Drawing, Arijit Sen.)

May 1909 he spoke to the Fellowship Society of Sanin 1910 to the Socialist Party, and in 1911 to the Bethanyionalist Church. He also spoke before many women’s or-s, including the Mesa Redondo Club in approximatelyke, Swami Trigunatita, 192.



and cudrifters,vespers.so unretled anin withTriguna

Hisinto somboard ayears beorder togethercongregthey moVallejothe olddemogrchangegrationCaliforngrants aaudienc

uiacemp

lus

ngaselooadems.uilg

r winriens

of ais trs

Fig. 25.


riosity among visitors increased. Manydilettantes, and nonbelievers too attendedIn fact, the public chapel’s attendance wasgulated that in December 1914, a disgrun-d occasional visitor named Vavara camea bomb and set it off, fatally injuring Swamitita.untimely death brought the congregatione disarray. However, the president of thend Swami Prakashananda, who just a fewfore had left the San Francisco temple instart his own Portland branch, worked to-

to stabilize the shaken organization. Theation continued to grow until 1959, whenved to a new building at the intersection ofand Fillmore Streets, a few blocks south oftemple. By the midfifties the political andaphic character of the congregation hadd. Since the 1946 Luce-Cellar Act, immi-restrictions on immigrants had loosened.ians were more accepting of Indian immi-nd Hindu culture. Addressing a differente and serving a different social world, the

new bspectnew tbut im

Conc

Writithis cthatinstethe tpiecethe bpeninothebuildexpewe counitstylesautho


lding did not need to stage an eye-catchingle. In direct contrast to the old temple, theple’s massive art deco facade was a familiarosing presence.

ion

architectural history of a building part—inthe front facade and chapel—is a strategyks beyond the building as a whole to focuson the human experience of encounteringple’s public spaces sequentially, in bits andFrom the outside facade we move throughding roomby room, unaware of what is hap-in another room or on a different floor. Inords, our experiential engagement with ag is piecemeal and fractured. This sensorynce of a building is different from the waytrue it as a singular cultural artifact. Thenalysis for building types and architecturalhe entire structure.While still accounting forhip (in other words, whomade the building,

[R. J.] Waters and Co., San Francisco, interior view of a terrace shrine.



why, andconstituments wand plac

Sepacade, enthe obseor her lences othose ofpeople pSuch msingle nstories omotion

Theso showhistorythe pres

schple, rearty’” inn oye-e. Tingr reen. Dntaatiodlenad a


how), the techniqueof analyzing a building’sent parts allows us to examine visceral engage-ith the built form to write histories of spaceses as experienced by their users.rate readings of the Vedanta Temple’s fa-trance hall, and public chapel showed thatrver’s visceral experience depended on hisocation, use, and background. The experi-f the temple’s residential rooms differ fromthe chapel as the activities and social roleserform in these different contexts change.icrohistories challenge the adequacy of aarrative for a building and suggest thatf places can be told as stories of bodies inand accounts of temporal experiences.argument regarding the building facade al-cases how the builders of this temple usedand the past to respond to the needs ofent. From the point of view of an architec-

turalmultiencementSocieWestnatiothe evisiblbuildpapebetwebilityVedamedimethcompand ivente


olar, this creative and political process andmicroanalysis shows that humans experi-

produce, and inhabit the material environ-ound them in polyvalent ways. The Vedantas ability to use the “first Hindu temple in thethis way emerged from the facade’s combi-f visibility and opacity. On the one hand,catching elements made the facade highlyhe domes and arches publicly marked thisas foreign. Indeed, the quantity of news-ports, positive andnegative, on this building1906 and 1914 can be ascribed to its visi-

ue to its symbolism, form, and imagery, theTemple produced a powerful shibboleth

ng cultural contact. Formal categories ands for understanding the building are in-te. Instead, the discrepancies, variations,ccuracies show how a minority religion in-nd adapted traditions in myriad forms.



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