Hi Suzan, I have travelled extensively and lived in Kerala (opposite side of the country) for a period of time, and I am back mapping there when time allows. In South India the distinction between Buddhism and Hinduism isn't as neat as the travel guides tell you, or as the Western mindset would like it to be. I happen to know of hundreds of sites where there is a Hindu Temple build over or next to a Buddhist shrine, in some cases integrating the Buddhist relics into their building, in some cases not. There are historical "assimilationist" reasons for this, but no local advocates of Buddhism who would point to the shrine and say Buddhist. There is also hot debate in India as to whether the the animist practices of some of the scheduled tribes are in fact Hinduism or are their own type, with the view that they are "all Hindu" very much promulgated by official sources, but that view not shared by Anthroplologists and the members of these small religions.
The solution is obviously to have the descriptive side of the tag first SHRINE, TEMPLE and so forth. But also accomodate that there are two possible categories of religious affiliation when that is the case. Note also that a temple can have several shrines, which is not to complicate things further for you as I think what you are doing is important cultural detail for OSM. Ciarán a.k.a. DeBigC
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