Sri Kamakshi Amman Alayam
Bobigny, Seine-Saint-Denis, France
- Deities
- Kamakshi (Parvati)
- Traditions
- shakta
- Worship status
- active
- Address
- 36 Avenue de la Division Leclerc, 93000 Bobigny
- Darshan hours
- Varies; consult the temple directly for the current schedule before visiting.
- Best time to visit
- Navaratri and other major festivals honoring the goddess Kamakshi, consistent with the already-documented Sri Kamadchi Ampal Temple in Hamm, Germany, dedicated to the same goddess; confirm the current calendar with the temple.
- How to reach
- On Avenue de la Division Leclerc in Bobigny, Seine-Saint-Denis, a northeastern Paris suburb with a large Sri Lankan Tamil community; reachable via Paris Metro Line 5 to Bobigny-Pablo Picasso station.
Location
Open in Google MapsThe Sri Kamakshi Amman Alayam stands on Avenue de la Division Leclerc in Bobigny, a northeastern Paris suburb in the Seine-Saint-Denis department that, along with neighboring La Courneuve, has become home to one of France’s densest concentrations of Sri Lankan Tamil Hindu temples. It is dedicated to Kamakshi, a form of the goddess Parvati/Shakti whose principal shrine is at Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu — the same goddess venerated under her Sri Lankan Tamil name, Kamadchi, at the much larger Sri Kamadchi Ampal Temple in Hamm, Germany, already documented elsewhere in this directory.
Bobigny’s status as a prefecture town of Seine-Saint-Denis gives this temple a civic as well as religious significance for the department’s substantial South Asian Tamil population. Its governing association, the Association Culturelle Sri Kamadchi Amman en France, was formally declared to French authorities on 19 January 2019, having previously been registered in the neighboring town of Drancy before relocating to the current Bobigny address in January 2020. Founders’ names and an architectural description remain unconfirmed; fuller documentation would need to come directly from the temple or its community.
Sources
- historical record: Cross-checked against Wikipedia's 'List of Hindu temples in France' and 'Hinduism in France' articles, both of which list the Sri Kamakshi Amman Alayam at 36 Avenue de la Division Leclerc, 93000 Bobigny, among the notable Hindu temples of the Paris region's Tamil community.
- historical record: Wave 2 follow-up: the temple's governing association, 'Association Culturelle Sri Kamadchi Amman en France' (RNA number W931021498), was officially declared to the French state on 19 January 2019, per the association registry aggregator net1901.org - it was originally registered at 147 Rue Anatole France, 93700 Drancy, with the relocation to the current Bobigny address recorded on 16 January 2020. The registry states the association's purpose as 'ensuring regular celebration and practice of Hindu worship in France.' An attempt to geocode the exact house number (36 Avenue de la Division Leclerc) via OpenStreetMap Nominatim returned only imprecise street-level results scattered across neighboring Bobigny/Pantin/Aubervilliers, so no reliable building-level coordinate could be added this pass.
For review
- The 2019 registration/2020 relocation dates found are the association's legal filings (previously based in Drancy), not necessarily when the Kamakshi-worshipping community itself first formed; no reliable building-level coordinates could be obtained, founders' names and architectural detail also remain unconfirmed.