King Charles III and Queen Camilla recently graced the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Neasden, London, to celebrate its 30th anniversary. The visit, marked by traditional Hindu customs, saw the royal couple welcomed with garlands of roses and carnations, and sacred threads tied around their wrists.
The official X profile of ‘The Royal Family’ shared pictures of the event, highlighting the King and Queen’s engagement with worshippers and representatives from community and social impact initiatives supported by the temple. These initiatives include The Felix Project and Women of the World (WoW).
The visit has garnered mixed reactions on social media, with some praising the royal couple’s gesture of honoring the temple’s milestone, while others questioned the tradition of the King, as ‘defender of the faith’, visiting a temple of a different religion.
This marks King Charles’s fourth visit to the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, also known as Neasden Temple, having previously visited in 2009 with Queen Camilla, and on two solo occasions in 2001 and 1996. The temple is renowned for its construction following ancient Vedic architectural texts, utilizing ornate stone carvings without any structural steel.