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Sri Vrindavan Dham (ISKCON Almaty)

Almaty, Kazakhstan

Pending reviewDocumented history

Also known as: Шри Вриндаван Дхам

Deities
Radha Krishna
Traditions
vaishnava
Worship status
active
Address
Mereyy Street 1, Almaty, Kazakhstan (ул. Мерей, 1). The same community also maintains a farm/temple site in Ptitsevodstvo village, Karasai District, Almaty Region, roughly 20-30 km outside the city.
Coordinates
43.3549, 76.7002
Darshan hours
Per the temple's own published daily schedule: Mangala arati 4:30 AM; Tulasi arati 5:00 AM; Sringar Darshan & Guru-puja 7:00 AM; Srimad Bhagavatam class 7:45 AM; Dhoop arati 8:15 AM; temple closed 1:00-2:00 PM; Raj Bhoga arati 12:30 PM; Puspa arati 4:00 PM; Sandhya arati 7:00 PM; temple closed from 8:10 PM. Confirm current timings directly with the temple before visiting.
Best time to visit
Major Gaudiya Vaishnava festivals such as Janmashtami and Gaura Purnima draw the largest gatherings, consistent with other ISKCON centers; consult the temple's own calendar (krishna.kz) for the current festival schedule.
How to reach
The main temple is at Mereyy Street 1 in Almaty city; the temple's own website provides Google Maps and 2GIS links for navigation. A second, farm-based ISKCON site associated with the same community is in Ptitsevodstvo village, Karasai District, Almaty Region, southwest of the city -- this is the site with the documented land-dispute history described below.
Access notes
As with other ISKCON centers, modest dress and removal of shoes before entering the shrine room is expected; no specific restrictions beyond that are documented.
Associated saints
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Location

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Sri Vrindavan Dham is the name used by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) community in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s commercial capital, for its temple complex. The community’s own website lists two locations under this community: a temple at Mereyy Street 1 in Almaty city, which publishes a full daily schedule of arati and classes, and a farm-based “Iskcon Temple” in Ptitsevodstvo village, Karasai District, in the surrounding Almaty Region.

The Karasai District site has a documented and difficult history. According to English-language Wikipedia articles sourced substantially from US State Department and OSCE-era reporting, Hare Krishna followers purchased land there in 1999 from a farmer who, it later emerged, did not hold clear title to it. Kazakhstan officially registered ISKCON as a religious organization in 2002. Beginning around 2004, the Karasai district government pursued a campaign to reclaim the land, culminating in the demolition of thirteen homes at the commune on November 20, 2006, by riot police and bulldozers in sub-zero weather – an action that international observers and Wikipedia’s own account describe as bearing signs of religious targeting, though Kazakh officials characterized it purely as a land-title dispute. A further round of demolitions followed on June 15, 2007. Sources available to this entry do not confirm the community’s precise legal or physical status in Karasai District in the years since, though the community’s own current website continues to list an ISKCON temple presence at Ptitsevodstvo village in that same district, alongside the actively operating Mereyy Street temple in Almaty city.

Today, Hinduism in Kazakhstan is composed mainly of ISKCON’s Gaudiya Vaishnava followers and a small diaspora Hindu population from India (801 Hindus recorded in the 2010 census). Wikipedia’s “Freedom of religion in Kazakhstan” article notes that only two Hare Krishna communities remain officially registered nationally, in the capital Astana and in Almaty, each reported to have more than 50 members.

Sources

  • historical record: krishna.kz, the community's own official website (retrieved 2026): names the temple 'Sri Vrindavan Dham', gives its address as Mereyy Street 1, Almaty (GPS 43°21'12.3"N 76°42'04.7"E, also cross-checked against a 2GIS map pin at the same address), publishes a full daily darshan/arati schedule, and separately lists an 'Iskcon Temple' location in Ptitsevodstvo village, Karasai District, Almaty Region.
  • historical record: English Wikipedia, 'Human rights in Kazakhstan': documents that on November 20, 2006, Karasai district officials, accompanied by riot police, bulldozers and lorries, evicted Hare Krishna followers from thirteen homes at a farming commune in sub-zero weather and demolished them, throwing residents' belongings into the snow; the article states this action appeared to target the community on the basis of religious affiliation, while Kazakh officials maintained the land had been acquired illegally.
  • historical record: English Wikipedia, 'Freedom of religion in Kazakhstan': corroborates the Karasai district campaign against the Hare Krishna movement's land, citing a further demolition of additional homes on June 15, 2007, and states the farmer who sold the land to the Hare Krishna community in 1999 did not hold clear title; also states that only two Hare Krishna communities remain officially registered nationally as of its source period, in Astana and in Almaty, each with more than 50 members.
  • historical record: English Wikipedia, 'Hinduism in Kazakhstan': states that ISKCON received official registration in Kazakhstan in 2002, and that Hindus in Kazakhstan are composed mainly of ISKCON followers and diaspora Hindus from India (801 Hindus recorded in the 2010 census).

For review

  • The exact institutional relationship between the Mereyy Street city temple and the Ptitsevodstvo/Karasai District farm site (one registered community with two locations, versus two related but separate entities) is not fully resolved from the sources found.
  • The 2006-2007 demolitions documented on Wikipedia targeted a Hare Krishna farming commune in Karasai District and are described there as destroying residential homes; it is not confirmed whether a dedicated temple/shrine structure (as opposed to devotees' houses) was among the structures demolished, nor is the site's exact present-day physical condition confirmed -- the most recent Wikipedia-sourced reporting found describes the situation as of that period as 'tense and unresolved.' The current 'Iskcon Temple' listing for Ptitsevodstvo village on the community's own site suggests worship activity continues there in some form today, but this has not been independently corroborated.
  • The specific form/name of the installed deities is not confirmed by available sources; 'Radha Krishna' is used here as the standard ISKCON convention rather than a confirmed specific installation at this temple.
  • Coordinates are derived from a degrees-minutes-seconds GPS reading published on the temple's own website, cross-checked against a 2GIS map pin for the same street address that differs by a few hundred meters; treated as best-effort, not surveyed.