A recent article in New Americans Magazine online begins as follows:
“Galion may be a small Midwestern town, but its legacy looms large in America’s industrial story. Known for producing the world’s largest road grader, the mighty T‑700, and as the unheralded birthplace of the pickup truck long before Ford became synonymous with it, Galion is now preparing to host a different kind of history‑making event. This time, it’s not horsepower or steel drawing attention, but spirit, culture, and faith.”
The article can be read here.
Galion’s Om Center welcomes thousands
New Americans reported that the Biswas Shanti Mahayagya—held from July 16 to 23—wrapped up only a few days ago at the 150‑acre Global Bhutanese Hindu Organization campus south of town. Organizers say the seven‑day gathering drew upward of 20,000 devotees, making it the largest Bhutanese Hindu assembly ever convened in the United States.
The magazine describes how volunteers covered roughly 500,000 square feet with tents and shipping containers, built a bamboo replica refugee hut, and kept 150 priests chanting the Bhagwat Purana around the clock. By the final evening, a ten‑million‑lamp ceremony illuminated the lakes and woodland of the former Cobey family retreat.
Traffic turns Galion into a waypoint
The influx of pilgrims was felt well beyond the Om Center’s gates. The SavaLot parking lot on Harding Way brimmed with charter coaches shuttling visitors, while traffic on State Route 309 slowed to a crawl as buses and caravans funneled south and north by he site.
Community and remembrance
Local residents such as neighbor John Goldbach lent heavy equipment to clear paths and place marble statues from India; Morrow County officials provided security. Amid worship and commerce, the Mahayagya also honored 67 Bhutanese who were killed or disappeared during the early‑1990s expulsions—an act of collective memory and healing the organizers called essential.
As the New Americans article concludes, “Galion—long known for building the machines that carved America’s highways—now finds itself laying a different kind of path, one that leads toward peace, memory, and spiritual rebirth.”
Image by Khai-Thai Duong from Pixabay
