Press Release   (February 25, 2015  )
Foundation obtains business license
Shree Pashupatinath Foundation, USA today obtained a Business License Certificate(#112639) from the City of Norwalk to carry out its religious and cultural activities in its property located at 10843 Kenney Street, Norwalk, CA 90650. We are now authorized to organize religious, cultural, and community programs in the property we bought more than two years ago. This is one of the greatest achievements of the diaspora Nepalese community residing in Southern California. The Foundation was desperately waiting for the occupancy permit and a business license for the last one-and-a-half years, and it was being delayed because of an unauthorized building modification apparently done by the previous owner and the amendments to the city’s building rules and regulations since the building was originally built. Shree Pashupatinath Foundation, USA will organize all the religious and cultural activities in its own property from now onwards.

The Foundation has already initiated process to procure the murtis (images) of deities by forming a Murti Purchase Committee comprising Bhakta Thapa (coordinator), Rishi Dhakal, Akaraj Pandey, Dr. Deepak Simkhada, and Dr. Jeet Joshee; community members and/or experts will be added as needed. We request all our community members to offer suggestions about murtis and recommend agents/suppliers in Nepal and India. We will start installing the images of gods and goddesses soon.

This huge project would not have been possible without the united efforts of our community members, who have donated from a penny to $111,111.11. Our mission is to build a temple that will replicate the Nepalese religious characteristics and preserve and promote our age-old language, religion, culture, and tradition in the United States. The Foundation’s current board is relentlessly moving ahead in accomplishing its mission through cooperation and collaboration with the Nepalese community members and local Nepalese organizations.

We have been able to strengthen our financial condition in the last four years although we are still short of about $500,000 to complete the first phase of the project, i.e. to pay off the mortgage and install the murtis of gods and goddesses in the property we own now. After collecting opinions from community members and pundits, the board has decided to install the images of Shiva, Ganesh, Durga, Saraswati, Bishnu, and Buddha. We are looking for donations to bring the temple components, including Shiva Linga and Gajur from Nepal. If you are interested in sponsoring the temple components, please contact one of our directors or our office.

We hope to welcome our valued community members to our temple premises very soon, and we believe that the Nepalese of all religious, cultural, and political faiths will be able to unite at the center. We express our sincerest gratitude to our valued community members, representatives of local community organizations, donors, entrepreneurs, journalists, and professionals for their continued support and cooperation. Please feel free to visit our office or email us at [email protected] if you have any suggestions or comments.

Rameshor Bhandari
Secretary