In the early nineties, a few early settlers and active families from the Indian community floated the idea of having a Hindu Mandir for the growing Hindu community of Las Vegas.  The constructive brainstorming and ideas became a dream, ultimately embracing a plan for the local Hindu Mandir.  With that mindset and determination, the Hindu Society of Nevada was registered with the Nevada Secretary of State as a non-profit in September 1994. 

The first community meeting and fundraiser dinner was held at the Masonic Lodge in the mid-nineties.   At the meeting, the attendees had enthusiasm, passion, and determination to build the first Hindu Mandir in the State of Nevada.  Over 400 excited community members packed the hall and committed their financial and non-financial resources to support and develop the Mandir.  Although the tickets were only $50 per person, over $250,000 was committed that evening to move on with the project at the earliest. Seeing the enthusiastic support for the Mandir, the founders’ committee debated on acquiring land and location and whether the community should approach BLM for cheap land or buy the required real estate from the open market.  Around the same time, the master-planned Summerlin development was at the conceptual stage, and the current location, 5 Acre (net 4.25 acre), was acquired in March 1997 in the name of Hindu Society of Nevada for $297,000 from the Howard Hughes Corporation as the land was explicitly zoned for religious purposes.

With no zoning-related issues and all the permits and funding in place, the construction started with a groundbreaking ceremony in late 1999.  The dream came true in April of 2001 when the Mandir was completed, and the community came together for the three-day grand opening celebrations.  The grand opening festivities, along with Murthi Sthapana (placing of deities) services, were held from April 27^th through April 29^th, 2001, with over 600 community members in attendance.  The community was proud of having its own place of worship.

Four prominent and well-learned priests – Shri S. Krihnamacharyulu of Los Angeles, Shri S. Venkatachryulu of Pittsburgh, Shri Gopal Krihnamacharyulu (our former Pandit Ji), and Shri Bhanu Joshi of Las Vegas performed the religious services and blessed the temple and the attendees.  Some prominent local elected officials attended the grand opening, including the then Mayor Oscar Goodman and Congresswoman Shelley Berkeley.

On a side note, vegasdesi.com regrettably informs that Mr. Anil Gupta (first from left in the picture above) and Dr. Dipak Desai were declared felons due to their malicious, unlawful business activities.  Mr. Gupta served time in prison and was deported to his hometown in Canada, while Dr. Dipak Desai passed away at the federal prison while serving life imprisonment.  As per the bylaws, it’s high time that the Hindu Mandir Board takes necessary action to remove their name from the plaque at the temple entrance.

After one year in operation, the Board decided to organize a second fundraiser with door prizes, social hour, dinner, and entertainment.  The tickets were reasonably priced at $35 per person to encourage wider participation from the community which resulted in a quick sale of six hundred tickets.  One thousand raffle tickets were sold for $100 each for a brand-new Mercedes Benz raffle prize.  The raffle was controversial, and Ms. Rita Vaswani won the brand-new Mercedes Benz.  The second fundraiser also saw some Bollywood-style action – the verbal and almost physical fight between the two well-known community members (name withheld).  The clash of personalities and egos was seen before the beginning of blessing prayers by our Panditji. The cooler heads calmed down the two individuals.

The third fundraiser – an optional black-tie dinner – started on a controversial note as the management, especially the then-board member Dipak Desai, raised ticket prices to $250 per person.  The fourth, fifth, and sixth fundraisers divided the community. The whole event was labeled as for the Physicians, by the Physicians, and of the Physicians, as the ticket prices were kept at $250 per person with platinum sponsorships going for $10,000.  The last formal fundraiser, held in 2006, brought in over $250,000 on a pretext to build a community center on vacant land at the Temple.  Architectural drawings were displayed to generate additional donations.  However, today, management has no sight or communication on the construction of any community center at the Mandir premises. Click here for the last formal (2006) fundraising pictures. For the past couple of years, the Mandir administration has hinted at starting an annual fundraiser banquet.

After all the initial controversies and the beginning pains of infancy being gone, the Mandir administration was doing a decent voluntary service to keep the community engaged in Mandir activities.  However, the board room conflicts erupted again in 2018.  For the past couple of years, the weekly attendance has declined except during special events like the annual Dusshera Mela, Diwali, and other religious occasions.

With growing attendance during the earlier years and increasing demand for religious services on Panditji Gopal, the Mandir administration decided to hire a second priest to supplement the services of Panditji Gopal.  Panditji Brijesh Rawal joined the Mandir in 2012, which helped with the needs of the growing local and prosperous Hindu community in the valley and, at the same time, brought additional revenues for the Mandir.  After serving the Mandir for over 15 years, 2015 saw the departure of Panditji Gopal, who went solo with his own private Mandir in the Southwest area of the valley.  In 2016, the Mandir administration brought in Pandit Vishnuji, and the following year management hired a Manager to run day-to-day operations. Manager was an unpaid volunteer position and lasted for less than 12 months.

Over the years, several additions were made to the Mandir, including the Panditji’s living quarters, a small library, a meeting room, and a commercial kitchen. The prayer hall was expanded to accommodate the growing congregation. 

2018 was a disconcerting and tumultuous year in the history of the Mandir.  With the growing community and getting out of the early infancy years, the board members’ personality differences erupted into an internal board room war with accusations started flying.  After celebrating the 17th-anniversary celebrations and the appointment of the new Chair and the Executive Committee, the new team started with an optimistic exuberance; however, later in the year, the Chairman, Nirmalya Chatterjee, along with the majority of the members of the Executive Committee led by President Sunil Vasu, abruptly resigned.  In the interim, Ramesh and Neeru Piplani came forward and volunteered their services to manage day-to-day Mandir affairs.  Las Vegas Metro Police Department got involved and, in yearly 2019, completed its investigation on alleged break-in and unauthorized audio recording.  

The metro could not conclude or pinpoint any particular individual for the alleged break-in or who recorded the conversations inside the Mandir. No one was formally charged for any illegal activity. The reorganized Board appointed Amrat Patel as the new Chairman of the Hindu Mandir Board.  Simultaneously, the Board was committed to revising the archaic by-laws and standard operating procedures. The new executive committee for managing the day-to-day affairs of the Mandir was already in place under the leadership of Neeru Piplani, and started serving the local Hindu community.

Due to COVID disruptions, there were no anniversary celebrations in 2020 and 2021. With growing personality conflicts among the Mandir Board members, this publication published an article on the Board members losing their membership privileges by default for not complying with the by-laws. Legally, the Board ceased to exist as none of the Board members complied with the mandatory requirements for members to stay on the Board.

After two year hiatus, in 2022, the management decided to hold the 21st-anniversary festivities. However, with no publicity and mismanagement, less than 21 attendees showed up at the Mandir. In 2023, the management team led by the new Board Member, Gopi Latpate, focused on bringing the community together to celebrate its 22^nd anniversary with mela/carnival-type celebrations.

On a positive note, under the leadership of incoming Mandir’s co-chair Gopi Latpate and Licensed Residential Designer Pravin Bakrania had taken the arduous task of long overdue construction of festival grounds on the east side of the Mandir. The construction included swings, with paved grounds, a couple of raised stages, and a children’s play area. “We will get the construction done, hopefully before the 22nd-anniversary celebrations, and have enough space for attendees to enjoy the celebrations with food, shopping, and more,” said Gopi before the anniversary date.

However, the 22nd-anniversary celebrations caused disagreement among the community members due to the management’s decision to charge for food. FREE to attend, but NO FREE LUNCH.

Festival grounds construction was completed before the anniversary celebrations. After much deliberation, the management decided to get away from the individual purchases of food items and charge a fixed amount ($20) per person. One price included AYCE food, entertainment, children’s activities, and more.

Spiritual Awakening, if any, and socializing with old and new friends were at NO COST.  However, for the first time, in Mandir’s history of anniversary celebrations, the temple management decided to charge attendees $20 per person for food, children activities, entertainment and more to celebrate 22nd anniversary. Later, the $20 per person cost was dropped, and attendees could purchase their favorite food at a pre-determined price.

Many community members were appalled with the decision to use donors’ money for a “football field” with no practical purpose, as Vegas heat will heat the ground turf to unbearable conditions. Additionally, in 2023, the cenotaph was added to the west side of the entrance of the Mandir to recognize loved ones who are no longer with us. The cost of putting a plaque was fixed at $10,000 plus $100 for religious services if requested by the donor. Again, the community was aghast with the management’s wasteful expenditure. With management’s divisive and diversionary operating policies, increasing fees for religious services, charging for a Sunday luncheon, and Board room clashes resulted in a considerable decline in daily attendance.

At the end of the year 2023, once again, the Boardroom civil war erupted due to flagrant disregard for the adopted bylaws of the temple in conducting the elections for the various executive positions for the year beginning January 2024. When this publication published an article on the violations of the bylaws, a few of the board members intervened, took corrective action and the elections were canceled. After a couple of days of deliberations by the Board, the new executive committee was announced. With growing conflicts, a couple of Board Members resigned but later rescinded their resignation. The two groups of the Board accused each other of numerous violations. Attorneys were hired, and the lawsuit was filed by one group of Board members against the other group. The newly appointed interim executive committee gained the community’s confidence by organizing religious and spiritual services at the Mandir.

Moving on to 2024, the Mandir is opened with our two dedicated priests, Brijesh and Vishnu Ji, performing their religious responsibilities diligently daily. The 23rd-anniversary celebrations brought in over 250 attendees to celebrate the occasion while the lawsuit was still active. In commemorating the 23^rd anniversary of the Mandir, the newly formed executive committee rescinded the policy of charging attendees for Sunday-sponsored luncheons. On many other celebrations like Shivratri and Hanuman Jayanti, the crowd swelled to over 400 attendees. Many devotees have come forward with donated food and other items to celebrate the multiple auspicious occasion.

The lawsuit is still pending in the District Court; however, the new all-volunteer management team has committed to bringing Mandir to its glory days of early 2000 by continuously providing spiritual needs to the growing Hindu community and celebrating Hindu events from uniquely diverse cultural and linguistic regions of India.