Jain Center of Southern California

Jain Center of Southern California
Jain Center of Southern California in LA
Basic information
Location	Buena Park, California, United States
Affiliation	Jainism
Country	United States of America
Governing body	Jain Center Of Southern California
Website	www.jaincenter.net
Date established	1979
Temple(s)	1

Jain Center of Southern California (JCSC) was among the earliest Jain Centers in America. It was founded on September 15, 1979. JCSC played a major role in founding of JAINA, the umbrella Jain body of North America by hosting the first Jain convention in 1981.

The temple is both non-regional and non-sectarian and thus includes Jains of all sects speaking various languages, as a result of conscious decisions made during the founding.

The new facility includes a religious complex and a cultural complex and an educational complex. All these has been built at a total cost of about $20 million made possible by donations of the members.

The building houses the historic 1904 wooden Jain Temple structure carefully restored to its full glory. Initially constructed for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, it stood in Las Vegas for many years before being reassembled recently.

In 1971, Chitrabhanu, Jain scholar and organizer, visited Los Angeles and assisted in a pratikramana hosted by Lalit Shah. Assisted by Mahendra Khandhar, he and other Jains conceived the idea of organizing a Jain institution locally and at the national level. In late 1970, dozens of Jains from cities around the Southland would come to a tiny house in Cerritos for prayer hosted by Manibhai Mehta. In 1979, 150 families participated in the founding of JCSC. It grew to about 700 families in 1996.

Initially the JCSC members met in various community halls. In 1988, the first temple termed jain Bhavan, was constructed with a cost of 1988.

Today, the local Jain community has thousands of members, a massive new temple. Some members live near Buena Park, but others come from as far away as Bakersfield.

At the founding, it was felt that the organization should be more than just a Jain shrine, and it should serve all of Southern California, not just Los Angeles. Thus, the name "Jain Center of Southern California" was selected.

Although the majority of the members were Gujarati, after some discussion it was decided that the institution would serve all Jains. While formal documents would use English, lectures could be in English, Gujarati or Hindi. Although majority of the Jains belonged to the Murtipujak Shvetambara tradition, it was decided that the sectarian differences prevailing in India should not be imported. While a family should use its own sectarian tradition at home, its use in organizational affairs would be divisive. A reasonable balance will be kept in to respect all the sects. While the majority would prevail, the minority would be heard, respected and accommodated.