Standing through time: Couva’s Mud Mandir

Ex­change Vil­lage Mud Mandir, al­so known as the Se­wala Mandir in Cou­va, ded­i­cat­ed to Lord Shi­va, is con­sid­ered to be the longest-oc­cu­pied tem­ple in the coun­try.

The Na­tion­al Trust of Trinidad and To­ba­go states that the orig­i­nal struc­ture, which still stands to­day, was con­struct­ed in the 1920s. How­ev­er, some date its con­struc­tion as ear­ly as the 1860s by the orig­i­nal in­den­tured East In­di­ans.

The mandir con­sists most­ly of mud and cow dung, which was then white­washed with lime, al­low­ing it to with­stand the el­e­ments and main­tain its struc­tur­al in­tegri­ty.

The roof, which may orig­i­nal­ly have been made of grass, was re­placed in 1985 with alu­mini­um.

The in­te­ri­or fea­tures carved re­liefs from the Ra­mayana. Ac­cord­ing to the late spir­i­tu­al leader and long-time gu­ru of the mandir, Pun­dit Hard­eo Ma­haraj (fond­ly known as Pun­dit Lall or Pun­dit Lal), who was in­stru­men­tal in pre­serv­ing and reg­is­ter­ing it, when asked about the im­por­tance of pre­serv­ing this ar­chi­tec­tur­al gem, he said: “If we have no his­to­ry, we nev­er ex­ist­ed”.