Dr. Pankaj Jain

University of North Texas
Studying the Religious and Ecological Practices of the Hindus and Jains in North Texas

Introduction

The last few years have witnessed a rapid rise in South Asian communities in North Texas and the rest of the USA. In the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) area, 13.5% of residents come from Asian countries with diverse religious and linguistic backgrounds.¹ I intend to conduct an ethnographic survey of the Hindu and Jain religious organizations and the socio-religious and ecological practices of one specific temple in DFW area as outlined in the diagram below:

My Project and UNT’s Mission

In line with UNT’s focus on interdisciplinarity, my project aims to combine the disciplines of Philosophy and Religion Studies and Applied Anthropology. As the worldviews of a community towards the environment are greatly influenced by its religious traditions, my project will explore the connections between the religious traditions of local Hindus and Jains and their environmental practices. In addition to providing a detailed ethnographic survey of local Hindu and Jain temples, I intend to also help these organizations become more environmentally sustainable, informed by my study of the carbon footprint and energy usage at the temple sites. I will leverage existing collaborations with NGOs, such as GreenFaith, who are eager to provide their “green” technologies and services to the places of worship in DFW and beyond.

One of the major emphases within the UNT’s research clusters is sustainability. My project aims to develop a bridge between UNT and DFW’s South Asian Community to capitalize on this relationship to foster their sustainable practices. I am also collaborating with the Office of Sustainability for my project.

Project Outline

Initial Study: I have started visiting and networking with local Hindu and Jain leaders at the BAPS Temple (Irving), ISKCON Temple (Dallas), DFW Hindu Temple (Irving), DFW Jain Temple (Dallas), Ramakrishna Vedanta Society (Irving), Hindu Temple (Flower Mound), Swadhyaya Parivar (Coppell), and Dallas Yoga Center.
Comprehensive Map: To prepare a detailed map of Hindu and Jain temples in the DFW area.
Demographic synopsis: To prepare a detailed profile of each temple in the area. This will include a brief history of each temple – dates of inauguration, land details, construction and architecture details, and congregation statistics. This synopsis will also be a contribution to the Pluralism Project’s national database.
Case study: To select one site to test and apply “green” technologies. Based on my initial observations and site-visits, I am considering a temple in Irving as my initial case-study site to begin researching their sustainability practices in June 2011. This temple is one of the most frequently visited temples in DFW area by Hindus and will be a good model for work with other temples.

Hindu and Jain Center Profiles

The following profiles were researched by student affiliates Heidi Bamberg and Michael Giulietti.

Related Projects

In 2011, Professor Jain published Dharma and Ecology of Hindu Communities: Sustenance and Sustainability, which explores the relationship between ecology and religion for the Swadhyaya movement and the Bishnoi and Bhil communities.

1. http://www.dfwinternational.org/DFWToday/DFW_Today_demographic_data.pdf ↩

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