Sri Guruvayurappan Temple

The temple modeled on the world famous guruvayoor temple in kerala india started in Houston a few months back. Although major portions of the temple structure are still under construction the inner sanctum has been opened for devotees for some time. Please read all bout the original guruvayoor temple and its legend here before you visit this place so that you can appreciate it better .
The deity in this temple is Krishna and avatar of Vishnu. The rock star of the Hindu pantheon and when I say it Iam not overdoing it. Read all about Krishna here
You will also observe that representations of other Vishnu avatars will be scattered around the temple complex. Lookout for koorma (tortoise), Garuda (the bird) statues. If you have been to the baps temple in Houston and observed the deities you will see the stark difference in the architecture. While the baps stresses on carved figures, use of marble and colorful life like deities the kerala temple will have an architecture predominantly based on stone stucco brass and paintings. This is also the general difference between temple architectures between north and south India .
The temple has a layered architecture with a mini chuttambalam (outer temple). Here you can see a granite pathway instead of the chuttambalam to go around the sanctum. and a sreekovil (inner sanctum). The sanctum is where the deity resides. The deity is treated as a living being and is woken up fed, bathed and dressed and put to sleep everyday. Each of these activities will have a specific name depending on the time of the day this activity is performed .
Also checkout the vilakku maadam or the multi tiered brass lamps in front of the temple. The top of this lamp will have a figure of Garuda the half bird half man vehicle of god Vishnu, he is placed as if looking at the deity and praying. The other multi tiered lamps are made of stone and placed on figures of tortoises which is one of the avatars of Vishnu .
The temple architecture is multi tiered. This was traditionally done to withstand monsoons and floods in kerala. Although traditionally wood is used for skeleton this temple is predominantly concrete.
There is a strict dress code in the temple. I have attached a picture. Videography and photography is prohibited in the temple unless you have special permission from authorities. Deities cannot be photographed. There is a large shoe rack outside the temple as shown in pictures .
There is an outer tent for Pooja of vehicles and devotees are offered sacred food on certain days. This is called annadanam and the details can be found outside the temple main office adjacent to the tent for vehicle poojas .
There are 2 gates to the temple and ample parking .
I will update the review once construction completes and the temple is fully functional.