Jain Temple, Antwerp

Among the largest Jain temples in Europe, built by the community that grew around Antwerp’s diamond trade.

Antwerp’s Jain community is substantially a community of diamond merchants, many of them from Palanpur in Gujarat, whose presence in the trade grew through the later twentieth century. The temple followed the community rather than preceding it.

It is built in traditional style with stone worked in India and assembled on site, and stands in a Belgian suburb — a juxtaposition that is the point rather than an accident of planning.

Written for Jain Times. Corrections are welcome — see sources and licences.