Penal

Penal is a town in south Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago. It lies south of San Fernando, Princes Town, and Debe, and north of Moruga, Morne Diablo and Siparia. Penal is noted as a heartland of Hindu and Indo-Trinidadian culture.

== History == Up to the 19th century the area was called Peñeraal by the then Spanish government. After British colonization it remained uninhabited until the late 19th century to around the early 20th century when former Indian indentured laborers used the cash they received, in lieu of return passage to India, to buy and develop crown land, in what is today Penal, for agricultural use by draining the swampy land. They called it Pinjal in Trinidadian Hindustani and Pengyal in Tamil. The Penal Hindu Mandir was built in 1888 by Bairagi mahants of the Ramanandi Sampradaya from India. The Patiram Trace Shiva Lingam Mandir, a major Hindu pilgrimage site in Trinidad, was established at the turn of the century when a swayambhu (self-manifested) Shiva lingam emerged when the land was being cleared. By 1905, a Canadian Presbyterian Mission school and church was set up and a mosque and public cemetery in Batchyia Village were established.