Some 200 community members attended an event marking the groundbreaking.
Community members participate in the groundbreaking at the spot marking the center of the central edifice.
People from surrounding neighborhoods make their way to the event commemorating the groundbreaking.
Members of the community work together to build a fence around the Temple land.
Some two hundred community members from the region of
Battambang in Cambodia gathered to celebrate the momentous occasion, beginning
with prayers at dawn. The event coincided with the commemoration of the Twin
Holy Birthdays—the Birth of the Bab and the Birth of Baha'u'llah.
Though yet unbuilt, the House of Worship is becoming part of
the fabric of community life, and developments related to its construction are
viewed as a collective endeavor, galvanizing the surrounding population. It is,
as described by the Universal House of Justice, connecting "two essential,
inseparable aspects of Baha'i life: worship and service".
The groundbreaking commemorated yesterday marks a
milestone—the first of its kind—among the seven locations announced by the
Universal House of Justice in 2012 to raise a Baha'i House of Worship in the
coming years.
(Baha’i World News Service)