Hinduism in Switzerland consists of a diversity of different groups and traditions. As in India and elsewhere none can claim to speak out for "the Hindus".

Interest in Hindu concepts started with the practice of yoga and its bodily exercises in the first half of the twentieth century. Today, hundreds of yoga classes and a multitude of yoga institutes exist. Most of them favour a non-religious approach, striving to train body awareness and inner tranquillity. During the 1970s and 1980s, an influx of new religious movements and among these Neo-Hindu groups reached Switzerland. The societal debate created by groups such as Transcendental Meditation, the Neo-Sannyas of Bhagwan Shree Rashneej and the Society for Krishna Consciousness of Swami Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada have calmed down during the 1990s. Apart from the Krishna community and its thriving temple in Zurich, most Neo-Hindu groups have twinkled down to a small number of members and followers.

The strand of immigrant Hinduism in Switzerland is made up of Hindus from India and Tamil Hindus from Sri Lanka. Indians in Switzerland, the majority of them Hindus, come up to about 7,500 people in late 2004. A temple of their own has not yet been established. In contrast, Tamil people from Sri Lanka have ritually installed their beloved deities in some 20 temples during the past two decades. Since the mid-1980s, Tamils have come as asylum seekers due to the escalation of the Sinhalese-Tamil conflict in Sri Lanka. In late 2004, they number about 40,000 people, four fifths of them being Hindus. They adhere mainly to the Shaiva tradition. In particular, during the 1990s a boom of temple openings took place. Most new homes for the gods and goddesses have been established in converted warehouses and in basement rooms. The slide show provides images from the first temple established in Switzerland, the Sri Sithi Vinayakar temple in Basel (NW Switzerland), and from two temples in north and central Switzerland. The concluding images give impressions from a place of worship honouring Sathya Sai Baba. The tiny temple is maintained by Tamil Hindus in a Catholic Church.

For more information on the Swiss Krishna community and its temple in Zurich, please see the Krishna temple's website at http://www.krishna.ch

The temple at Adliswil, near Zurich, has its own website; please see the Sri Sivasubramania's website at http://www.murugantemple-zh.ch

A detailed account of the history and state of affairs of Hinduism in Switzerland is given in Martin Baumann, "Yoga, Krishna, Hindu-Tempel. Hinduismus in der Schweiz". In: Internationales Asienforum, 36, 2005 (in press).

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