On Wednesday 11 March, a group of Year 7s went on a trip to BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir (also known as Neasden Temple) as part of our RE topic on Hinduism.

We left school at 8:40am on a coach to begin our one hour journey to Neasden, North London with a stop mid-way at a motorway services.

When we arrived we were all astounded to see such contrast between the elegant, marble, carved temple in between modern, brick houses. After we had recovered from our amazement at the fantastic architecture we posed for a group photo before heading in through security.

What we saw was amazing, in the grand entrance hall there were huge, wooden, intricately carved panels covering the walls. We were able to get a closer look at these panels as we went in, after removing our shoes. The detail on the panels was incredible, faces, animals, men and women and various other elegant pictures.

After this we were ushered into a large hall by our guide and shown a film about the making of the temple which included several fascinating facts, including that the Bulgarian and Italian marble had been shipped first to India to be hand carved, then shipped back to England to be assembled.

Next we listened to a talk on Hinduism which left us with many questions, all of which were answered in due course giving us a huge insight into Hinduism and its practices.

Afterwards we were led into the main Mandir for an Aarti ceremony (a ceremony where incense is waved in front of Murtis [Holy statues of Gods]), then a chance to wander around and look at the Murtis and read their stories.

We were given a worksheet and led down into an 'Understanding Hinduism' exhibition which fascinated us and gave answers to even more of our questions. The very last thing we did before getting on the coach was visit the gift shop. When we got back we had a chance to discuss the trip and finish our worksheets with our friends.

We had a great day which gave us a better understanding of Hindu culture and its religious stories. I hope you enjoyed my recount of our trip and thank you for reading.

- Finn, Year 7