ABSTRACT
Since the 1980s, refugees from Sri Lanka have been living in Germany, high percentages of them being Tamil Hindus. Whereas the early immigrants had no public religious institutions at all, over time Tamil Hindus have created possibilities to practise their faith outside their homes. They have set up prayer halls and temples in converted basements and industrial sites and have even started to construct new buildings. The establishment of temples has enabled the celebration of yearly temple festivals and other main religious events which in turn have created a demand for special festival activities in the South Asian tradition. The most important are public processions which since the early 1990s have been organised ever more frequently by a number of temple committees. This chapter concentrates on these public phenomena, looking at the patterns of Hindu Tamil processions in several German cities. Attention is paid to the self-interpretation of the organisers and participants but also to the reactions of the host society. The history of one of the processions is explored to reveal the negotiations that took place with regard to the contested public space.
