Building a Bell Shrine

Jai Ganesha!

Over the last few weeks we've had a team working on an important creative project for future visitors to enjoy. A redwood shrine is being built for Iraivan Temple's granite bell. After completing the design we set about to create the form foundations and several days from now we will be pouring the concrete. After that it will just a little bit of fancy woodworking and viola! A place for pilgrims to summon the inner worlds through the evanescence of a gigantic masterpiece of granite. Aum.

The completes design of the final product

Every good thing requires a proper foundation though. On this day we create the foundation\

s form boards for the concrete pour. '

You can see this wooded form around the pillar bases in this draft

This shows the details of the foundation and the metal within the concrete

Here are the internals of the footing pieces

Brahmachari Akash drills holes through the metal c-channels that will hold the forms in place

Saravananathaswami cuts the all-thread that will attach to those holes

Earlier, Dennis Wong digs a perfect pit for the foundation

He\

s the expert at all things involving excavators'

Some gravel, and it\

s ready to go'

Time to bring over the rebar internals

perfect fit

The rest of the team arrives to place the heavy forms

over the top they go!

Next some fastening, and then we\

ll be ready for the concrete'

Check back soon to see the progress!

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