Lotus Temple
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The Bahá'í House of Worship in Delhi, India, popularly known as the Lotus Temple, is a Bahá'í House of Worship and also a prominent attraction in Delhi. It was completed in 1986 and serves as the Mother Temple of the Indian subcontinent. It has won numerous architectural awards and been featured in hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles.
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[edit] History
Inspired by the lotus flower, its design is composed of 27 free-standing marble clad "petals" arranged in clusters of three to form nine sides. The architect was an Iranian, who now lives in Canada, named Fariborz Sahba. The major part of the funds needed to buy this land was donated by Ardishír Rustampúr from Hyderabad, who gave his entire life savings for this purpose in 1953. [1]
[edit] Structure
Nine doors open onto a central hall, capable of holding up to 2,500 people. Slightly more than 40 meters tall, its surface shining white marble, the temple at times seems to float above its 26 acre (105,000 m²; 10.5 ha) nine surrounding ponds. The site is in the village of Bahapur, in the National Capital Territory of Delhi. Since its inauguration to public worship in December 1986, the Bahá'í House of Worship in New Delhi has, as of late 2002, attracted more than 50 million visitors, making it one of the most visited buildings in the world. [2] Its numbers of visitors during those years surpassed those of the Eiffel Tower and the Taj Mahal. On Hindu holy days, it has drawn as many as 150,000 people; it welcomes four million visitors each year (about 13,000 every day or 9 every minute).
[edit] Tourism
This House of Worship is generally referred to as the "Lotus Temple" by Bahá'ís and non-Bahá'ís alike. In India, during the Hindu festival Durga Puja, several times a replica of the Lotus Temple has been made as a pandal, a temporary structure set up to venerate the goddess Durga.[3] In Sikkim a permanent replica is of the Hindu Legship Mandir, dedicated to Shiva. [4]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Faizi, Gloria (1993). Stories about Bahá'í Funds. New Delhi, India: Bahá'í Publishing Trust. ISBN 8185091765.
- ^ Baha'i Community of Canada
- ^ Chakraborty, Debarati. Newsline 28 September 2006: Here's Delhi's Lotus Temple for you at Singhi Park!. Retrieved on 2007-05-29.
- ^ http://wikimapia.org/461240/ Satellite image in Wikimapia.
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