(Kuala Lumpur, Jan 21, IANS) A century-old Hindu temple in Malaysia has probably become the first shrine in the world to get an international quality service certification.

The Sri Sundararaja Perumal Temple in Klang, just outside Kuala Lumpur, got the ISO 9001:2000 certification in November for its quality in religious, cultural and social services, according to Malaysian news agency Bernama.

The Geneva-based International Organisation for Standardisation certifies companies and service providers worldwide for quality upon achieving certain benchmarks.

Malaysia's Works Minister S. Samy Vellu will officiate the ISO 9001:2000 certification award ceremony Wednesday.

According to the temple president S. Anandakrishnan, for the past three years the temple administration worked hard to get the certification by streamlining and standardizing the day-to-day working of the temple.

The Sundararaja temple, known as the "Thirupati of Southeast Asia", was built more than 100 years ago.

"Other temples are not bound to follow our standard operating procedure but we wanted to set a benchmark so that people will know we provide quality services in religious faith," said Anandakrishnan.

"Standard guidelines will be put into place for matters like booking of the wedding hall and the do's and don'ts for priests while conducting prayers," he said.

In Malaysia, Indians, who are mainly Hindu, account for about 10 percent of the population.