Jain Center Los Angeles CA 2008 09 Pratishta Souvenior

Author(s): Jain Center So CA Los Angeles
Publisher: USA Jain Center Southern California

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Manubhai Shah for nearly 10 years at his company's facility - MSI International, Inc. in the City of Orange.
Figure 5. Disassembled temple stored at MSI International, Inc., City of Orange
FINAL DESTINATION: A PERMANENT HOME AT THE JAIN CENTER
Nearly 14 years ago, Jain Center of Southern California (JCSC) began to formulate a plan to build new Jain Bhavan. With a unified community consensus, JCSC developed a master plan to build a multipurpose Jain Bhavan complex in three-phases - Phase I: A Cultural Complex; Phase II: A Religious Complex (Derasar and Aradhana Hall): and Phase III: An Atma Sadhana Kendra. Phase I design was initiated with one important mandate -, to provide an appropriate and adequate space to assemble and display one of the most important artifact the wooden temple. Following the inauguration of the Cultural Complex in March 2005, Manibhai Shah and MSI International, Inc. rose up to the challenge and took full responsibility to refurbish and re-assemble the wooden temple.
When the wooden temple was on display outside in the open in Las Vegas, it was coated with thick coats of varnish to preserve it from elements of rain and sun. Using over 200 galloons of paint stripper, MSI staff members (MSI artisans) carefully removed all the varnish and gummy coating to display the natural beauty of the teak wood and the fantastic carvings. After cleaning all the pieces, MSI artisans proceeded to assemble nearly 70% of the temple in their own facility in order to figure out how each piece fitted together, to determine how many pieces were missing, and to design an internal steel support structure to address the earthquake code requirements. Only three photos were available to MSI to figure out the jigsaw puzzle and fit the parts together.