Siva holds aloft an oil lamp, the panca ladhi. As acting priest, he leads the prayers at the Sri Mangala Vinay Ahar Alayem Hindu temple. 'We show the fire lamp. We get the brightness to drive away the dark. Everything burns in the fire. The action
Siva takes the oil lamp around the temple; Balenthiran prays; another offers a coin. Sri Mangala Vinay Ahar Alayem Hindu temple, Woodside Hall, Glasgow October 2005
The Sri Lankan Tamil Hindu community celebrate the Diwali festival with a night of song and dance. Woodside Hall, Glasgow November 2005
The Sri Lankan Tamil Hindu community celebrate the Diwali festival with a night of song and dance. Woodside Hall, Glasgow November 2005
Youth of the Sri Lankan Tamil Hindu community celebrate the Diwali festival with a night of song and dance. Woodside Hall, Glasgow November 2005
The Sri Lankan Tamil Hindu community celebrate the Diwali festival with a night of song and dance. Woodside Hall, Glasgow November 2005
Balenthiran prays. Sri Mangala Vinay Ahar Alayem Hindu temple, Woodside Hall, Glasgow October 2005
Youth of the Sri Lankan Tamil Hindu community celebrate the Diwali festival with a night of song and dance. Woodside Hall, Glasgow November 2005
Balenthiran and Rajkumar (center) help serve food. Each person attending the temple contributes a monthly fee to pay for food and rental of the hall. The community would like to establish a permanent temple in Glasgow. Currently, the only other Hind
Siva and his wife, Roobaranee, watch a video of their daughters performing. Siva’s time is filled with looking after his his teenage children, his duties at the Scottish Refugee Policy Forum, collecting his family’s weekly benefits, and his role as
Balenthiran and his family are Tamil, from Sri Lanka’s Jaffna peninsular. Balenthiran’s family currently exists on emergency support from Social Services, which social services is not obliged to provide, and which keeps them from destitution. This s
Balenthiran, his son Athavan and his wife Niramala look over the paper trail of their asylum claim - the last five years of their lives. Balenthiran claimed asylum in late 2000. This was rejected in 2002. His son and wife then claimed asylum indivi
Siva Kumaravelu prays at a small shrine in his son's room. ‘Mostly we are mentally affected. This is the problem, sitting every day. One day you sit at home, how do you feel? Boring, yes? This is not one day. It is years and years.' Pollokshaw
Siva does the accounts for the Sri Mangala Vinay Ahar Alayem Hindu temple. Siva was an agricultural instructor in Sri Lanka. As an asylum seeker he is denied the right to work. For the five years he has been in Scotland, performing the duties of tre
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