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The Village temple (replaced with a far larger one a few years after I left) provided a site for village meetings as well as a focus for worship. The paved plaza in front of it also provided a convenient place to dry crops for storage, as well as a playground for children and social gathering place.
Village meetings were held in the old temple building, since it was the largest indoor space in the village. Normally village meetings involved only the household heads, who were nearly always male. The altar is at the left of this picture, the main door opposite it on the right.
The village built a new "Education & Recreation Center" along the side of the temple plaza to provide a better meeting place (the wing at the right), as well as a real village office and, it was hoped, a branch of the local Agricultural Association (the screened room at the left).
The plan was not very successful. A few years later the building was put to use as a temporary dormitory for hired laborers when too many village men had emigrated and a larger labor force was needed in some seasons. A few years after that it was razed, allowing a more spacious plaza before the elegant new temple.