Siparia: The Town of La Divina Pastora
Siparia is a small town in the southwest with the biggest festival in Trinidad's religious calendar. Every year, thousands of pilgrims come here for La Divina Pastora — Catholics and Hindus, praying to the same statue, calling her by different names. The rest of the year, it's a peaceful town with deep faith, deep roots, and a steelband that plays like it means it.
Published by LocalAxys Editorial Team ·
Siparia is a small town in the southwest with the biggest festival in Trinidad's religious calendar. Every year, thousands of pilgrims come here for La Divina Pastora — Catholics and Hindus, praying to the same statue, calling her by different names. The rest of the year, it's a peaceful town with deep faith, deep roots, and a steelband that plays like it means it.
The Sand City
Siparia's nickname is "The Sand City." The name itself comes from the Lokono language — the -ari ending meaning "hard" or "rough," possibly "machete." Before the Europeans, this was a non-Mission Amerindian settlement. Between 1756 and 1759, Aragonese Capuchin monks founded a mission here and brought the feast of La Divina Pastora — the Divine Shepherdess — to Trinidad. The statue they enshrined has been in the Siparia area since at least the 1700s.
Siparia became the administrative center for the old Saint Patrick county, and in 2023 it was made a borough. The railway reached it on April 1, 1914.
One statue, many faiths
The La Divina Pastora RC Church holds a Black Virgin statue — the town's patron saint — and she is venerated far beyond the Catholic congregation. Hindus worship the same statue as Sipari Mai, the Mother of Siparia — identified as Kali, Durga, Lakshmi, or Sita, or a goddess in her own right. Anglicans, Spiritual Baptists, Rastafarians, Orisha practitioners, Bahá'ís, and the Indigenous Warao all hold her sacred. The early Chinese Buddhist settlers saw in her an emanation of Guanyin.
There is no other statue in Trinidad with this kind of following across this many faiths. Siparia's church is genuinely one of the most remarkable religious sites in the Caribbean.
The Siparia Fete
The Catholic feast of La Divina Pastora falls on Good Shepherd Sunday, a few weeks after Easter. But the great pilgrimage is the Hindu one: the Siparia Fete, held on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Thousands pour into the town — a street market and mela springs up outside the church, families come for baby blessings, and the faithful file past the statue through the night.
If you want to see Trinidad's religious pluralism in one place, on one day, come to Siparia on Good Friday.
The Deltones
Siparia's steelband is the Siparia Deltones, founded in 1962 by pan pioneer Ellis Knights. The Deltones have made the Large Band Panorama finals multiple times (2009, 2011, 2012) and recorded an album with South African trumpet legend Hugh Masekela — From Siparia to Soweto (2014). The panyard sits on Railroad Road, on the spot where Trinidad's last passenger train stopped, and the band famously makes "Railway Pizza" in ovens built from repurposed steelpans. It also runs a music institute and a farming project. This is a steelband that feeds its community in every sense.
The people
Siparia gave Trinidad its first female prime minister: Kamla Persad-Bissessar, born here on April 22, 1952, MP for Siparia since 1995, prime minister from 2010 to 2015 and again from 2025. The town also produced world champion boxer Giselle "Jizelle" Salandy and champion track cyclist Njisane Phillip.
What to see
- La Divina Pastora RC Church — come in the Easter season, especially Good Friday, for the full experience.
- The Deltones panyard, Railroad Road — pan, pizza from steelpan ovens, and the end of the old railway line.
- Irwin Park — the community sports park, with its statue of Ellis Knights.
- Quinam Beach — about 1,600 meters of calm, family-friendly sand on the south coast, a short drive away.
Siparia is proof that a small town can hold the whole island's faith. Come for the festival. Stay for the feeling that some places are simply blessed.