HISTORY
JAI SHREE RAM
About 150 years ago, there was a mass migration of people from Andhra Pradesh, India to Malaysian Peninsula. Majority of the people ended up as labourers at the rubber plantation estates.
The people of Andhra Pradesh did not only migrate themselves to Malaysia but also brought together with them the rich culture and Devotion of Lord Rama. Being great devotees of Lord Rama, slowly Ram Temple was built and established in almost all Plantation estates with good number of Telugu people. For many years since their arrival here, Ram Manthra chanting, singing of Ram Bhajans, celebrating Sri Rama Navami, Daatubhjana, and all other Ram festivals were conducted without fail by the devotees.
Then starting from early 80’s , the people started moving out from the plantation estates towards cities and industrial areas in pursuit of better future for the family and future generations. A large number of families started to migrate to the city of Shah Alam for its prospering industrial developments which offered many jobs for the people. Even though they moved out of the rural plantations and became more independent, the devotion towards lord Rama did not fade from their minds and hearts. They slowly started gathering and started again the chanting of Ram Manthra and held weekly Ram Bhajan sessions at the devotee homes’ in rotation. As expected, the numbers started growing day by day as more people started to gather every week for this auspicious devotion.
By the year 1990’s the numbers of devotee gathering every week grew so big that almost all devotee homes were running out of space and getting too congested to conduct the weekly Ram mantra and Ram bhajan sessions. A group of devotees decided that it was time to look for a bigger space and started to rent shop lots at Taman Sri Muda Shah Alam to conduct the weekly activities. There was no turning back since then, the centre became very active with more activities like the Teaching of Ramayana, Hinduism classes, Daatubhajana and celebrating all events and festivals related to Lord Rama. After about 20 years of this ongoing activities, the group of devotees suggested to get a formal registration done so that we can start looking to move to the next level, i.e to have our very own space for all the activities and to have a proper place for us a to pray and sing the glory of Lord Rama.
On the 11th September 2019, PERSATUAN PENGANUT HINDU DEWA SITA RAMA SHAH ALAM (SHAH ALAM LORD RAMA HINDU DEVOTEES ASSOCIATION) was formally registered with the Registry of Societies, Malaysia. With the official registration, the society also started establishing a working committee and formal membership registration.
The association was established and has grown over the years to become a driving force for creating awareness of the teachings of Ramayana and worship of Lord Rama. Highlights of its activities include the Sita Rama Kalyanam Mahotsavam which is the grand celestial wedding conducted annually as part of the Sri Rama Navami celebration. This and a host of other knowledge and cultural initiatives by PPHDSRSA for the past 8 years have not only brought together worshippers of Lord Rama, but have also helped cultivate human values such as righteousness, justice and integrity being the key principles espoused by Lord Rama and his teachings. The annual Celestial Grand Sita Rama Kalyana Mahotsvam gathers on average about 2,000 devotes every year.
With the growing number of followers and the ever increasing demand for its religious and cultural activities, PPHDSRSA has in 2017 undertaken to apply for a piece of land with the State Government to build our very own Lord Rama Devalayammumu. With the blessings of Mother Sitama and Lord Rama and with great help of Shri YB Ganabatirau Veeraman, our application was successful and the Selangor State Government granted us a 10,000 sq feet of land in Section 18 Shah Alam to construct the Lord Rama Devalayammumu. The Bhoomi Poojaa was successfully held on 10th October 2019. Due to the Covid 19 Pandemic, we were unable to proceed with the other matters needed to be done to initiate the construction process but the background preparation work of designing, architectural drawings, planning process was on going
Now, finally with the easing of the Pandemic, we have started to move into the next step of the process to get the construction work starting soon. We are anticipating to start the construction work during the first quarter of 2022.
Due to our strong devotion and affiliation to Bhadrachalam SREE SEETHA RAMACHANDRA SWAMY VAARI DEVASTHANAM, we have taken the unique appearance of Lord Vishnu as VAIKUNTTA RAMA as the name for our Devalayammu. The devotees are now awaiting for the starting and completion of SRI VAIKUNTTA SITA RAMA DEVALAYAMMU. With the blessings of Mother Sitama and Lord Rama, we are targeting to complete the construction before the celebration of Sri Rama Navami in year 2024.
JAI SHREE RAM