Jain Temple, Bartlett

Also Jain Society of Metropolitan Chicago

One of the largest Jain temples in North America, serving the Chicago-area community with shrines of more than one tradition.

Built by a community formed largely of post-1965 migration from India, the temple houses Svetambara and Digambara shrines together — the same accommodation Leicester made, and for the same reason: a diaspora congregation is rarely large enough to divide.

It functions as much as a centre for teaching the tradition to children raised outside it as it does as a place of worship, which is a preoccupation particular to diaspora Jainism.

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