ISKCON Amsterdam (Hare Krishna Temple)
Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Deities
- Radha Krishna
- Traditions
- vaishnava
- Worship status
- active
- Address
- Lizzy Ansinghstraat 80, 1072 RD Amsterdam
- Coordinates
- 52.3496069, 4.8928615
- Darshan hours
- Varies by temple and season; consult the temple's own website for the current daily schedule before visiting.
- Best time to visit
- King's Day (Koningsdag, late April) is when the community holds its well-known annual Harinam kirtan procession through central Amsterdam; Janmashtami is the movement's major yearly festival.
- How to reach
- In Amsterdam, reachable by the city's tram/metro network; Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is the nearest international airport.
- Festivals
- Janmashtami (August/September)
- Associated saints
- A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Location
Open in Google MapsISKCON has maintained a presence in the Netherlands since 1970, with centers historically recorded in Amsterdam and eight other Dutch cities, and Henk Keilman serving as chairman of the Dutch ISKCON Foundation in the early 1980s. Rather than concentrating around one single flagship temple, the Dutch Hare Krishna community has relocated many times over the decades - from an original Bijlmer temple through the Red Light District and a succession of canal-side and other addresses - and has long been closely intertwined with Belgium’s Radhadesh community at Château de Petite Somme, which Dutch devotees played a leading role in establishing; Amsterdam’s own most visible yearly public expression is a Harinam kirtan procession through the city center on King’s Day (Koningsdag).
The current Amsterdam temple, named Gaura Dhama, opened at Lizzy Ansinghstraat 80 on 19 September 2015, following a stretch of over two decades (roughly 1992-2015) at a previous address on Van Hilligaertstraat. As of this writing, the community’s current organizational website is running an active fundraising campaign for yet another new, purpose-built Amsterdam temple, which suggests the Dutch ISKCON presence today may continue to be more provisional in its physical footprint than the well-established rural temple-and-farm communities found in neighboring countries such as Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. This entry should be treated as provisional pending direct confirmation of the temple’s current status.
Sources
- historical record: Cross-checked against the Dutch Wikipedia article on ISKCON, which documents a Dutch ISKCON presence (as of a 2008 source cited there) spanning nine cities including Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag, and Eindhoven, and names Henk Keilman as chairman of the ISKCON Foundation in the Netherlands from 1982-1984; against Wikipedia's 'List of Hindu temples outside India,' which lists 'Hare Krishna Amsterdam' at Lizzy Ansinghstraat 80, 1072 RD Amsterdam; and against the Wikipedia biography of Kadamba Kanana Swami (born near Amsterdam), which confirms an Amsterdam King's Day Harinam tradition and notes that Radhadesh in Belgium 'was started mostly by devotees from the Netherlands.' The organization's own current sites (iskconamsterdam.nl, a fundraising page for a planned new temple building, and harinamsankirtan.nl, an itinerant Dutch sankirtan/kirtan ministry) were also checked but gave no founding date or confirmed fixed-temple history.
- historical record: Wave 2 follow-up: an archived 2016 snapshot of the temple's own former 'About Us' page states 'Hare Krishna has been a part of Amsterdam since 1970,' and traces a long sequence of locations: an original temple in the Bijlmer, then the Red Light District, then successively Herengracht, Keizersgracht, Hobbemakade, and Van Hilligaertstraat 17 (occupied roughly 1992-2015, per a 2015 farewell blog post), before the move to the current Lizzy Ansinghstraat 80 building, named 'Gaura Dhama,' which officially opened 19 September 2015. A 2016-era archived page gives contact/hours as tel +31 (0)20 675 1404, email info@iskconamsterdam.nl, with Friday 16:00-20:00 (dinner club and Bhajan evening) and Sunday 15:00-20:00 (Sunday feast/zondagsfeest) programs - these may no longer be current. Coordinates confirmed via an OpenStreetMap point-of-interest explicitly named 'ISKCON Amsterdam.' As of 2026 the organization's live site remains a fundraising page for a further new temple project, so the Lizzy Ansinghstraat address, while well-documented historically, may not remain current indefinitely.
For review
- The Netherlands does not appear to have one single long-established flagship temple building the way some neighboring countries do: the community has relocated many times since 1970, many early Dutch devotees are recorded as having helped found Radhadesh in Belgium instead, and the current Amsterdam ISKCON organization is actively fundraising (via iskconamsterdam.nl) for yet another new purpose-built temple, suggesting the Lizzy Ansinghstraat 80 building (opened 2015 as 'Gaura Dhama') may itself be superseded at some point. Current (2026) darshan hours were not confirmed; a 2016-era schedule was found but may be outdated.
- The specific deity/murti details for this location were not confirmed in sources checked this session; 'Radha Krishna' reflects standard ISKCON practice generally, not a site-specific confirmation.