First temple with ISO certification

[NOV]

Kuala Lumpur: A temple in Malaysia has probably become the first in the
world to achieve the international quality service certification for its
religious, cultural and social services to Hindus.

The administration of the Sri Sundararaja Perumal temple in Klang near Kuala
Lumpur worked on getting the ISO 9001:2000 certification for the past three
years by enhancing its administrative needs which include assisting schools,
orphanages, charities and areas like religion, education, social and
humanitarian development.




Temple President S Aanandakrishnan said that with the ISO award, temple
religious activities would be standardised to set a precedent for other
temples, Bernama newsagency reported.

"Other temples are not bounded to follow our standard operating procedure,
but we wanted to set a benchmark by achieving this award so that people will
know we quality services in religious faith.

"By standardising our religious procedure, devotees will get similar and
fair treatment in terms of wedding ceremony and other rituals," he said.

The Sundararaja temple known as "Tirupati of South East Asia" is the largest
Vaishnavite temple in West Malaysia. It was built more than 100 years ago.

[NOV]

Sri Sunderaraja Perumal Temple, better known as Klang Perumal Temple, is a 117-year-old temple. It is one of the oldest temples in Malaysia and the largest Vaishnavite temple in Malaysia. The temple is popularly called the "Thirupathi of South East Asia" after its famous namesake in India.

The temple is located in the royal town of Klang, Selangor and is just a stone's throw away from the popular Little India in Klang.

This temple is dedicated to the Lord Vishnu in the form of Perumal (also known as Thirumaal), a very popularly worshipped form by South Indians.

Architecture

The Gopuram of this temple is one of the great landmarks of Klang, which stands proudly along Persiaran Raja Muda Musa. It shows many sculptures and carvings of different deities, representing many epics in simple image form.

Inside the temple, there are several complex dedicated to different deities. At the center of the temple is the Perumal Sannathi, where Lord Perumal and His consort Goddess Mahalakshmi are situated. The center complex of Lord Perumal Sannathi contains a small gopuram with the statue of all Lord Vishnu’s avatars surrounding it.

On the right of the Perumal Sannathi is the Shivan Sannathi, which consists Lord Shiva, Lord Parvathi, Lord Vinayagar, Lord Muruga and Lord Ayyappan. On the left side of Perumal Sannathi is Saneshwara Sannathi, where Lord Shani and the Navagrahas is situated.

Adjacent to the center complex is Lord Anjaneya Sannathi and just at the corner outside the temple is Lord Nagaraja Sannathi.

The temple also has a multi-purpose hall called The Mahalakshami Kalyana Mandapam (Mahalakshmi Wedding Hall), a favorite place of the Indian community in Klang to have their weddings.

The entire space of this temple is befitted with air-cool system for the convenience of devotees.

Sri Sunderaraja Perumal Temple is now in the process of undergoing major renovation to restructure the temple area. It is planned to commence around November 2010 and end by 2014,with all the painstaking effort by the present temple president,Mr.S.Ananda krishna.The first GRANITE temple in Malaysia

Festivals

Various religious and spiritual activities are held in Klang Perumal temple all year long. But the most prominent of it is the Purataasi month celebration, the month dedicated to Lord Perumal. It is the month that falls between mid-September to mid-October, where many devotees of Perumal take strict vows to achieve spiritual conscience.

Month long prayers and rituals are held everyday and Saturdays of this holy month is celebrated grandly in festival mood. Lots of devotees from all over Malaysia and even the neighboring countries throng to this temple from morning to night to pay their homage and have the grace of Lord Sri Sunderaraja Perumal.

The temple is also particularly packed on Deepavali with devotees eager to offer their prayers on the holy day.

[edit]Contributions

Apart from religious duty, the temple is also very active in serving its responsibility towards the society. Every Saturdays, the free lunch program is held where lunch is cooked and sent to many less-privileged homes around the Klang district. Furthermore, it also arranges hospital visits from time to time to help the sick.

Awards and recognition

Recently, the temple was awarded with ISO 9001:2000 certification for its quality sustained contribution in religious, cultural and social service to Hindus. This is probably the first Hindu shrine in the world to receive an international quality service acknowledgement.

[sathya_1979]

From CC:
Kapaleeswarar Temple in Mylapore also have ISO 9001:2008 Certificate (Got last year, July 2010). Madurai Meenakshi Temple this year and Coimbatore Siddhi Vinayagar Temple also got this certificate in Jan 2010.

[NOV]

Great!
We need accountability....

[chevy]

god is everywhere. why does a temple need an ISO/agmark..

may be that's like rating how efficiently the devasthanam officials work , for that would an audit exercise do?

[sathya_1979]

ISO 9001:2008 is about setting goals, Quality Policy, proving that the org meets them and improve them. Nothing to do with religion / spirituality. I guess they have obtained the certificate by assessing the temple administration and the facilities they offer to devotees who visit the temple.

[chevy]

Perhaps ..but its so unwarranted..people in service of god shud be doing it out of devotion..and not for the mere rating/salary....but i know it doesn work like that..not such an uthopian world.

[NOV]

Well, you have to recognise that a temple needs administration, and ISO ensures good practices. Why the need to find fault in that?

[pradheep]

GOD is every where, but why are temples needed with quality?. Answer lies in this article. Please watch the video for understanding it better.

http://uni5.co/index.php/uni5-self-awareness

[Cinemarasigan]

Thanks Nov and Satya for sharing these details. It is good that temples are also coming into ISO standards. We can be assured that when we visit these temples we can spend some "Quality" Time there..