The Task of Tiling Iraivan Temple's Foundation

Jai Ganesha!

Recently we have begun what will eventually lead to the tiling of Iraivan Temple's foundation plinth. Currently the entire plinth around the temple is bare concrete, but when complete, it will be topped with red granite tiles, accenting the white granite Temple and walls and continuing with the South Indian Temple theme of representing Siva and Shakti with whites and reds. White as the unmanifest and red as the manifest Universe. It's a process that requires a great deal of thought and careful calculation in order for us to be efficient and to produce the best result that we can. Click through the slideshow to learn a little more. It's wonderful to see yet another big part of the temple project begin to move. Aum Namah Sivaya.

Acharya Arumuganathaswami shows us a sample of the red granite we plan to be using around the temple foundation

In this aerial you can see the bare concrete which surrounds the main temple structure and Nandi Mandapam

Color it red and you get a bit of an idea as to how it will look

The inside of the temple already has red granite tiles. For the tiles outside the temple, weather conditions must also be considered.

Yoginathaswami keeps all the structural and layout drawings of the temple

For this project he provided Acharya with this drawing giving the dimensions of the temple

Arumuganathaswami then continues with the task of calculating out all the tiles and their sizes that will be required

This involves a lot of measuring and accounting for things like grout joints and expansion joints to compensate for temperature and weather

Each tile receives accurate dimensions

Swami shows us some of the options we had for red granite

This is an example of the granite we currently have inside the temple

And this is the white granite that the temple is carved with

This is the red granite we are hoping to use for the plinth.

As you can see, it contrasts beautifully with the temple\

s existing white granite. Aum'
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