OK, this just got even stranger than I expected! So apparently there are a number of temples in the "Aryan" northern part of India where Ravana is worshipped. As already pointed out in a previous blog post, Ravana is the *bad guy* from the Hindu epic Ramayana.
It´s not entirely clear to me why some Hindus have chosen to worship the demon-king of Lanka, but there could be a connection to Shaivism. While Rama is associated with Vaishnavism, Ravana has a connection of sorts to Shiva. Some of these temples do contain Shiva-lingas. Maybe it´s also a caste issue? One of the temples is also dedicated to various goddesses and claims a connection to the Indus Valley Civilization. Or so the article linked below says. Wikipedia says something else and I´m not near enough to take a look myself...
It seems Rama´s devotees aren´t always happy about the Ravana temples, but they do "fit the format" in the extremely diverse and downright confusing religious landscape of Hinduism...
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