Sri Balaji Temple
Frankton, Hamilton, New Zealand
- Deities
- Venkateswara (Balaji), Sri Satyanarayana Swamy, Maha Lakshmi
- Traditions
- vaishnava
- Worship status
- active
- Coordinates
- -37.7885, 175.2652
- Darshan hours
- Open most days of the week; consult the temple/Sri Balaji Temple Trust (SBTT) directly for the current schedule before visiting.
- Best time to visit
- Year-round; the temple's Annual General Meeting and associated community gathering take place around July.
- How to reach
- At 2 Kent Street, Frankton, Hamilton, with an extension premises on King Street; reachable by car or local bus.
Location
Open in Google MapsThe Sri Balaji Temple Charitable Trust was founded in Hamilton around 2009, and after six years of fundraising and organizing, the trust opened its temple in March 2015 at 2 Kent Street in the suburb of Frankton, later adding an extension premises on King Street. The temple’s own record of a seventeenth Annual General Meeting falling in 2026 independently lines up with that roughly-2009 founding date, corroborating the timeline given in secondary sources.
Modeled after the hill-shrine of Sri Venkateswara at Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, India — traditionally described as standing on the seventh peak, Venkatachala — the Hamilton temple enshrines Sri Venkateswara (Balaji) as its presiding deity alongside Sri Satyanarayana Swamy and Sri Maha Lakshmi. Operating within the Vaishnava tradition, it serves as a community hub for Hamilton’s Hindu population, hosting daily puja and regular cultural and religious programming throughout the week.
Sources
- historical record: Cross-checked Wikipedia's 'Hinduism in New Zealand' article, which states the Sri Balaji Temple 'was opened in March 2015, six years after the founding of the Sri Balaji Temple Charitable Trust' (implying the trust was founded around 2009), against the temple's own website (sites.google.com/site/balajihamilton), which independently references its own '17th Annual General Meeting' scheduled for July 2026 — consistent with a trust founding around 2009 and corroborating Wikipedia's timeline. The temple's website also confirms the address (2 Kent Street, Frankton, Hamilton, with an extension at King Street) and that the presiding deity is Sri Venkateswara, alongside Sri Satyanarayana Swamy and Sri Maha Lakshmi.
- historical record: Coordinates added this pass via OpenStreetMap/Nominatim geocoding of Kent Street, Frankton CBD, Hamilton (approximately -37.7885, 175.2652); this is street-level, not building-exact, since a precise match for '2 Kent Street' specifically was not returned (one nearby result was labeled 'Upper Kent Street,' a naming variant not confirmed to be the same as the temple's own 'Kent Street' address).