01Hanuman over the cane fields
The Dattatreya Yoga Centre at Orangefield was founded by followers of Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji of Mysuru, who visited Trinidad many times. They brought sthapatis and craftsmen from Tamil Nadu to build a temple to Dattatreya, the guru who unites Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, with a gopuram, carved pillars and painted ceilings such as no Caribbean temple had had before. Beside it rises the murti of Hanuman, 85 feet tall, painted in bright colours, his hands joined in namaste, completed in 2001 under the direction of the Chennai sthapati T. Subramanian. On Hanuman Jayanti the grounds are crowded.
02A Caribbean Hindu landscape
Carapichaima and the villages around it were sugar country, worked by indentured Indians and their descendants, and the land is still dotted with jhandi flags, red and yellow bamboo poles raised after a puja to Hanuman in front of Hindu homes. The Hanuman murti stands a short drive from the Temple in the Sea at Waterloo, and pilgrims often visit the two together. The local sugar company, Caroni, closed in 2003, but the temples remain at the centre of the community’s life.
The life of this place
- 2001The 85-foot Hanuman murti is completed.
- 2003The Caroni sugar company, the area’s old employer, closes.
Orangefield Road, Carapichaima, central Trinidad, about an hour south of Port of Spain. Combine with the Temple in the Sea at Waterloo.
