ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the retrieval of legacies within a Hindu community of the Great Lisbon area connected to the construction of a Shiva temple in Santo António dos Cavaleiros (Loures). Jane Guyer has exposed how memory and materiality are two central elements in the recuperation of the ties of a group, functioning as a means of activating identity and assembling what appears fragmented. In 1985, the Hindu Community of Portugal was formally set up and immediately embarked on building the Radha-Krishna Temple in Lumiar, which was completed around a decade later. The Hindu congregation living there grew substantially in the 1990s, making it urgent to obtain their own space to allow for its congregation and socialisation. The new Shiva Temple is meant to display, in a more prominent visual sense, the Hindu presence in the area, thus evidencing an effort at identity retrieval within the community.
