Myrtle Beach’s first Hindu temple opens

Myrtle Beach’s first Hindu temple opened Sunday, welcoming worshippers and visitors.

The Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), located at 920 Shine Drive in The Market Common area, will serve as a place of worship for more than 250 local Hindu families.

Mayur Patel said the Hindu community worshipped in various locations such as a Days Inn in Myrtle Beach for about a decade as the community grew.

“We didn’t have enough room,” he said. “With the community getting greater and bigger, we decided to get our own worship place.”

The new temple is in the former Dominion Energy office building. Land records show BAPS Myrtle Beach LLC purchased the building for more than $950,000 in July 2021. 

Jatin Patel, who attends the BAPS temple in Columbia, was one of roughly 175 volunteers in Myrtle Beach to assist in Sunday’s celebrations, which included blessings and ceremonies.

“It’s a big event for all of us in the Hindu community,” he said. 

Other BAPS temples are in Orangeburg and Greenville. Myrtle Beach’s temple gives the local community a place to call their own. 

“They have a local community that they’re able to have within themselves, within their own space that allows them to come for spiritual discourses,” Jatin Patel said.

With spaces for youth activities and assemblies, Jatin Patel described Myrtle Beach’s new temple as “an open space for all ages.”

The new temple is also planned to be the site of several community engagement events such as walk-a-thons and blood drives.

Jatin Patel encouraged all in the area to visit the temple, hoping to bring the community closer.

“It’s an open space for all,” he said. “It’s for all, any religion to just come and visit. You can learn a few things from here about Hinduism.”