Five Thousand years of Hindu Life centered on Temples. A Temple in a village is created as a center for the activity for everyone in a village to take interest in religion. Religion has been the driving force for Hindus and Hinduism is a way of life for many. Several Hindu immigrant families in Tulsa have longed for a place of worship for a long time, yearned for a place to pray, meditate and get together for religious functions. The families have persistently been meeting at individual homes every week for more than 20 years. The interest locally has been broadly deep and on several occasions people came forward generously with donations in money and in kind.The will of the Hindu immigrants is breathing air into the current holy activity of building and an independent Temple. In the beginning, funds for the Temple were raised by various ways such as screening Indian movies, garage sales, selling clothing, Tulsi Plants, samosa's (yes, samosas!), greeting cards, and children donating their allowance. Here is a summary of the our Temple milestone history:

1. March 1997. Dr. Sekhar Polepalle and Dr. Krishnamurthi approached Mr. Pradeep Reddy and requested to look for land suitable to build the Temple in Tulsa. Several parcels of land in South Tulsa, Broken Arrow and Glenpool were evaluated but none were suitable for the Construction of the Temple.
2. May 27, 1997, Williams & Williams had an auction. Dr. & Late Mrs. Sekhar & Suseela Polepalle purchased the land (where the Temple is currently located) and pledged 11 acres to the Temple on May 29, 1997.
3. October 24, 1997. HTGT received a General Warranty Deed for 11 acres from Late Mrs.Suseela Polepalle. That set in motion the start of the Hindu Temple of Greater Tulsa.
4. June 19, 1997. Applied for Zoning Variance.
5. July 22, 1997. Approval for zoning variance request received.
6. August 16, 1997. Ground Breaking Ceremony & Bhoomi Puja Homam.
7. September 19, 1997. Tulsa County Department of Environmental Quality approvedSeptic System after Perk Test.
8. October 8, 1997. HTGT received Federal Identification Number from IRS.
9. October 28, 1997. Filed Articles of Incorporation with State of Oklahoma as not-for-profit Corporation.
10. August 21, 1998. Received Sales Tax Exemption Certificate.
11. First Official Meeting to elect the officers was held in Hardesty Library.
12. February 15, 1998. By-Laws created.
13. March 31, 1998 Appled for Applcation for Tax Exempt Non Profi Status under (503)Section of IRS
14. September 19, 1998. Approved the By-Laws of HTGT. Elected the Officers for 2 year term.
15. April 8, 1998. Awarded the Water Line Contract. All the drawings were prepared by Mr.Chinna Gunda. A 6" water Line from 21st Street to the Temple was done by McGuire brothers Construction Company.
16. August 31, 2000. Approval of the Building Plan & Contractor.
17. September 18, 2000. Construction of the Temple Building Started.
18. April 30, 2001. Construction of the Temple First Phase completed.
19. May 6, 2001. Inauguration of the Temple building.
20. March 17, 2005. The slab for the Dining Hall was completed. It did not have the building enclosure which was completed after the Kumbhabhishekam due to funding constraints.
21. June 5-9, 2005. First Maha Kumbhabhishekam & Prana Prathishtapana successfully completed

Historical Note: Initial plan was to build a 2,000 square foot because we had only $90,000.00. The plans were drawn by Mr. Chinna Gunda. In the 2nd meeting of Board of Trustees & Officers it was suggested to get a little larger building. HTGT contacted Mr. John Sanford Architect to develop drawing for a larger building. That was presented to the Construction Committee first and then to the Board & Officers. It was approved with few changes in the height of the ceiling. The plans were sent out for the Bids. The three Contractors who Bid were over the HTGT Budget. Late Mrs. Indu Meshri was instrumental in asking Mr. Ray Miller of Fleming Building Co to construct the Temple building at cost. On Aug 31, 2000a contract was signed with Fleming Building Co.

On behalf of the Hindu Temple of Greater Tulsa, we deeply acknowledge the great vision, contribution, and service from the following:

Late Dr. Indu Meshri, Late Mrs. Nirmala Bharani, Mr. Rama Krishna Palapu & Late Mrs. Lalitha Palapu, our first temple volunteer engineer Mr. Chinna Gunda, Dr. Pratip Bandyopadhya, Mr. Pradeep Reddy, Dr. Sekhar Polepalle & Late Mrs. Suseela Polepalle, Drs. Subramanian & Manjula Krishnamurthi, Architect, Mr. John Sanford, and Mr. Ray Miller & Mr. Ron Potts with Fleming Building Co.

22. November 4-6, 2011. Navagraha Pratishta Kumbhabhishekam performed.
23. January 2012, The detail planning for the Rajagopuram and temple building expansion started.
24. July 26, 2012, Architect John Sanford was hired to prepare the Rajagopuram and building expansion plan for obtaining the City permits. The plan included construction of approximately the 49 ½ feet tall Rajagopuram and the expansion of the temple building to the north and the east totaling approximately 5,643 square feet.
25. December 22, 2012. Building permit was issued by the City of Tulsa.
26. In order to meet funding constraints and "pay-as-you-go" philosophy, the construction was divided into Phase I, IIA, and IIB. Phase I included the Rajagopuram and the building structural shell for the north and east expansion. Phase IIA included the completing of the north building expansion, additional sanctum for Lord Subramanya, Lord Hanuman, Lord Ayyappa, Durga Mata, Saraswathi Mata, and Shirdi Sai Baba.Phase IIB included completing the interior of the remainder of the building shell in the northeast corner and the east part of the temple which is currently incomplete. Due to structural design and the cost savings, the building enclosure for the entire north and east expansion was included in Phase IIA.27. November 16, 2012. Design build contract with Fleming Construction was signed forPhase IIA.
27. February 2013. The children playground was completed.On behalf of the Hindu Temple of Greater Tulsa, we deeply acknowledge Drs Submramanian and Manjula Krishnamurthi for sponsoring the full cost of the playground. We thank the following volunteers who helped in the installation of the playground: Mr. Pradeep Reddy, Mr. Vaithee Subramanian, and Mrs. Padma Kunderu.
28. June 12, 2013. R-1 visa for five shilpis (Hindu religious architect) from India was granted by the U.S. Immigration Services. The Rajagopuram shilpi work started in August 2013 and complete around October 2014.On behalf of the Hindu Temple of Greater Tulsa, we immensely congratulate and appreciate the dedicated work of the Chief Shilpi Vanmeganathan Sethuraman and the following assistant shilpis: Nagarajan Nagarathnam, Paramaiah Sankaralingam, Ragavendran Negarajan, and Selvaraj Sellakkannu.
29. January 19, 2015. Design build contract with Fleming Construction was signed for Phase IIB.

On behalf of the Hindu Temple of Greater Tulsa, we acknowledge the following devotees and volunteers for their tireless contribution and help during the three years of construction:

• Pradeep Reddy who was instrumental in monitoring and coordinating the various aspects of construction;
• Venkatesha Kadiri who served as the Temple Structural Engineer and assited with the permit and during construction;
• Anand Kilambi for providing his geotechnical expertise:Meenakshisundaram Krishnasamy for providing his architectural expertise;
• Priest Kumar Gurukkal for his assistance in developing the sculptures for Rajagopuram;
• The following members of the Construction Committee: Kumar Madduri, Srini Sundaramoorthy, Venkatesha Kadiri, LakshmiNarasimhan Parthasarathy, Vivek Savant and Bhupendra Master.

31. April 16, 2016. Occupancy permits received.
32. May 5-8, 2016. Maha Kumbhabhishekam & Prana Prathishtapana Celebration!