Golden Temple, Sripuram

The golden temple complex inside the Sripuram spiritual park is situated at the foot of a small range of green hills at Thirumalaikodi village, 8 km from Vellore in Tamil Nadu, India. It is 120 km from Tirupati, 145 km from Chennai, 160 km from Puducherry and 200 km from Bengaluru.The maha kumbhabhishekam or consecration of the temple and its chief deity, Sri Lakshmi Narayani, was held on 24 August 2007, and devotees from all religions and backgrounds are welcome to visit. This temple is gilded with 1500 kg of pure gold, double the 750 kg gilding of the Golden Temple at Amritsar.BackgroundThe salient feature of 'Sripuram' is the Lakshmi Narayani temple whose Vimanam and Ardha Mandapam is covered with pure gold, housing the deity Sri Lakshmi Narayani (female consort of Vishnu Narayana). The temple is located on 100 acres of land and has been constructed by the Vellore-based charitable trust, Sri Narayani Peedam, headed by its spiritual leader Sri Sakthi Amma also known as 'Narayani Amma'.DesignThe temple with its gold covering, has intricate work done by artisans specialising in temple art using gold. Every single detail was manually created, including converting the gold bars into gold foils and then mounting the foils on copper. Gold foil from 9 layers to 10 layers has been mounted on the etched copper plates. Every single detail in the temple art has significance from the vedas.