ISKCON Hungary
ISKCON - Budapest I ISKCON Somogyvámos - New Vraja dham
The leaders of ISKCON mention 8,000-12,000 devotees living in Hungary. According to Tamas Barabas (one of the leaders of the ISKCON), 190-200 live in temples, 700-900 practice their religion seriously, on the four festivals 9,000-10,000 persons gave their names, many of whom go to different Krishna programmes. Amongst them, the number of followers and non-followers, regular and less-regular practitioners is unknown.
The biggest ISKCON centre in Hungary is the rural community located in Somogyvamos, a small village in south-western Hungary. Sivarama Swami is the official GBC representative in Hungary.
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) runs the Bhaktivedanta Theological College in Hungary. The Hungarian government donated a building for the Bhaktivedanta Theological College.
Krishna devotees first appeared in Hungary at the end of the 1970s, but only in the second wave of the mission, in the mid 1980s, did a viable community develop. Since 1989 the Community of the Hungarian Krishna conscious devotees (from now on ISKCON) is a registered religion in Hungary. At their incorporation they registered 50 persons. By 1993, half of the Hungarian population had heard of them.
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