Hindu Temple
— — a single dome the merchants left behind.
Not only on a wall.
“A small ochre temple with a half-melon dome, built in 1892 by Sindhi traders who crossed the Persian Gulf to settle in Bandar Abbas. It is the only Hindu temple in Iran. The walls are stucco the colour of dust and turmeric. The roof carries a row of small subsidiary domes. Inside, the central shrine is open to the air and the heat sits gently on the stone.
Hindu Temple, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Hindu Temple of Bandar Abbas stands in the old quarter of Iran's main southern port, on the north shore of the Strait of Hormuz in Hormozgan Province. It was built in 1892 by Sindhi Hindu merchants who had settled along the Gulf in the late nineteenth century when Bandar Abbas was a key node in the Indian Ocean trade in spices, textiles, and pearls. It is the only Hindu temple in Iran and is registered on the country's National Heritage List. The site is locally known as the Botikadeh.
The plan is a square sanctuary set under a single large half-melon dome, ringed by a parapet carrying smaller subsidiary domes in the North Indian style — a form rare on the Iranian coast and clearly imported by the Sindhi community. The walls are thick stucco painted ochre and dust-yellow, with a low arched portico facing the street. The central shrine sits at the heart of the square plan, with an opening above it that lets the light fall straight down at midday. The building is small, about a single house-lot in footprint.
The temple is no longer in active religious use. It is preserved as a heritage site and is sometimes open as a small visitor space hosting exhibitions on the city's history and on the Sindhi merchant community that built it. The old quarter around it carries the rest of that history — the colonial-era Portuguese fort on the waterfront, the Hindu cemetery on the edge of town, and the long bazaar that runs back from the customs house. Bandar Abbas reads best in winter; summer temperatures regularly clear 40°C.