Building in the shape of a lotus. Lotus Temple - one of the most beautiful temples (New Delhi, India)
The story began 4 centuries ago, when Shah Akbar had plans to create a palace, the purpose of which would be to unite all the peoples in India under the sign of a single faith.
“And I dreamed that stone by stone I had built a sacred temple. Not a pagoda or a mosque or a church, but something sublime and simpler with gates open to the breath of heaven and truth and peace and love and justice found and settled in it.”
— Shah Akbar
The snow-white Lotus Temple is located near the central city of India, New Delhi. The location was determined by the fact that in ancient times there was a settlement of Baha Pur, which translated from Hindi means “Bhaha’s Dwelling”. Its doors opened to visitors in 1986 and are still open to everyone, regardless of faith or gender.
The temple was designed by an architect, a native of Iran, Fariborz Sahba, who has many awards in the architectural field. Construction lasted 6 years with the participation of 800 workers.
The Lotus Building in India is the 7th Baha'i temple out of seven, the others are located in Western Samoa, Australia, Uganda, Panama, West Germany, USA. Each of the built temples has an individual architectural design and 9 entrances that are open daily to everyone without exception.
Around the temple there are 9 pools filled with the purest water, which recreate the water space - the natural environment for the birth and flowering of the lotus. The structure itself consists of 27 concrete petals covered with marble white. The interior of the temple is completely devoid of any religious values or painted walls. The design itself carries deep meaning and significance.
Every day, the Lotus Temple is visited by 8 thousand people, which is comparable to the daily flow of visitors to the famous Taj Mahal.
In the Lotus prayer house you will not meet a priest, an imam, or any other clergyman, they simply are not there. But there are volunteers who are appointed for a certain time to help visitors and maintain the temple. Several times a day, volunteers conduct and plan prayer programs, which are also intended for everyone - neither faith, nor gender, nor skin color matters.
Visiting rules
An essential rule for entering the Lotus Temple is established for all holy places in India - before entering you must take off your shoes, which can be left without any problems in the free storage rooms. Cameras are located at the entrance.
Video filming and photography inside the temple is prohibited. Also, you must maintain complete silence and turn off Cell phones. These measures are being taken due to increased acoustics inside the structure.
The Lotus Temple is one of the most amazing architectural structures located in India very close to the capital of the state. It is worth noting that the place for construction was not chosen by chance - once upon a time the sacred village of Baha Pur was located in this very place. The construction process lasted for 8 years, and Fariborz Sahba worked on the design and project of the building.
general information
The Lotus Temple (Delhi, India) is a house of worship. One of the most majestic and grandiose buildings in India has the clear shape of the flower of the same name, only of enormous size. This “flower” consists of twenty-seven petals arranged in three rows. Individual parts of the structure are made of crystal clear white concrete, and on the outside the lotus petals are covered with monolithic slabs of white Greek marble.
A remarkable fact is that it took just over two years to create a computer model of this grandiose structure. In addition, the Lotus Temple is also unique in that there is not a single straight line in the entire structure of the building - only ovals and semicircles, which, in turn, symbolize the infinity and incorruptibility of the spiritual component of man.
The height of the building is more than 30 meters, while the diameter of this “flower” itself is 70 meters. The capacity of the main hall is 1300 people. In addition, to emphasize the grandeur of the entire structure, there are 9 large swimming pools around the building. It is thanks to this design feature that the stone flower seems to have grown out of the water.
Uniqueness of the temple
The grandiose structure deserves special attention. It is designed according to the principle of operation of the oldest ventilation systems that were used in Indian buildings. Warm air that accumulates in the central hall freely exits through an opening located in the upper part of the dome. And the cool air that passes through the foundation and the system of nine pools returns back to the hall.
Lotus Temple (Delhi, India) is open to the public. Every day a huge number of pilgrims and believers from different parts of the world flock here. However, numerous tourists should remember that you can only enter the sacred building by taking off your shoes at the entrance. In addition, any conversations (even in a whisper), video filming and photography are prohibited on the territory of this building.
The meaning of the temple
The Lotus Temple is one of the few buildings in the whole world that amazes not only with its majesty and monumentality, but also with its rich cultural and religious potential. At its core, India is a land of wonders, so it is difficult to surprise the locals here with anything, but this magnificent “flower” certainly became one of the most famous buildings of the late 20th century.
The famous one says: “Be calm, as if at the foot of the temple of truth.” This saying can easily be attributed to the grandiose architectural masterpiece, which has now been dubbed the modern Taj Mahal of India.
It is worth noting that the lotus has been a sacred plant for a huge amount of time. In addition to the fact that Hindu buildings and homes are decorated with this flower, there is even a kind of “lotus art” that helps a person gain control over his own thoughts and find the path to natural enlightenment.
Lotus Temple in India
Today the temple hospitably opens its doors to everyone. Every year it is visited by more than 1 million people (pilgrims, religious believers, and neighboring countries, as well as tourists from all over the world).
There are 9 doors in the central hall, each of which leads to a different side of the “flower”, symbolizing the number of paths for a true Baha'i. It is worth noting that interior decoration The temple is devoid of all paintings and objects of worship - this, by the way, is not very typical for Indian culture.
The Lotus Temple is the place where a person’s soul finds peace, thoughts are put in order, and a person achieves inner peace. People come here to philosophize, think about the meaning of life, and also immerse themselves in thoughts about the perishability of all things.
Baha'ism, or the Baha'i Faith, is one of the young religions, founded in the mid-19th century in Persia by Hussein Ali-i-Nuri (Baha'u'llah). It currently has over 5 million followers in more than 188 countries. The sacred scriptures of Baha'ism have been translated into more than 800 languages. The Baha'is call their temples Mashriqu'l-Adhkar or Houses of Worship. According to the orders of Bahá'u'lláh, in every area where Bahá'ís live, a temple with nine entrances and one dome, symbolizing the unity of religions, should be erected. One of these Houses of Worship, the Lotus Temple, was erected in the capital of India, New Delhi.
The Lotus Temple is the main Bahai temple in India and its neighboring states. Today, for many visitors to the city, the temple is the main attraction of the capital. The temple was built from snow-white marble in the shape of a blooming lotus flower. The marble came from Mount Penteli, in Greece. The building has received several architectural awards, and has also received the attention of many newspapers and magazines around the world.
The idea of construction was born in the early 1920s. Even then, the young community requested permission to erect a building in Bombay, but Bahá'u'lláh's eldest son, Abdu'l-Bahá, agreed to the construction, but only in Delhi. Almost 50 years have passed since that moment, and construction began in 1978. 8 years later, on December 22, 1986, the Lotus Temple was ready to be visited. The architect was Iranian-born architect Fariborz Sahba.
If you take a good look at the temple, you can find a general resemblance to the Sydney Opera House, which inspired Sahb's appearance. The Lotus Temple combines several architectural elements. The main features of the building correspond to the requirements of the sacred scriptures: a nine-sided rounded shape, a dome, the absence of pulpits, altars, sculptures and images. The central hall reaches 75 meters in diameter and 31 meters in height. This size of the hall can accommodate 1300 people.
The structure resembles a lotus flower, which is where the name comes from. The Lotus Temple consists of 27 marble “petals”. The building has 9 doors leading to the main hall. The temple territory also includes a garden with an area of 10.5 hectares. There are ponds and lakes around the building, forming a symmetrical figure. And with the onset of darkness, the lights turn on, illuminating the temple from all sides.
The Lotus Temple is open to people of all faiths. In the first 16 years alone, since its opening, about 50 million people visited it. This is one of the most popular places not only in the capital, but throughout India. The popularity of the temple has surpassed even the Taj Mahal itself. And during the holidays, the number of people visiting the temple per day reaches 150 thousand people.
The Lotus Temple is the most original sacred building in the world: it is built in the shape of a snow-white blossoming flower and does not have a single straight line. This is the main Bahai and one of the top attractions in New Delhi. It is also called “modern India”.
Myths and facts
The official name of the huge marble lotus is the House of Worship. This religion is the youngest in the world (appeared in the mid-19th century). She professes the unity of God and the unity of religions, therefore a person of any religion and nationality can come to the Bahai temple and pray to the God in whom he believes.
The architect Fariborz Sahba was entrusted with creating the design of the grandiose building. Inspired by the Sydney Opera House, he used computer programs to create a design for a temple in the shape of a lotus, a sacred plant for many Eastern peoples. Such painstaking work took two years.
The place for the shrine was not chosen by chance - previously the legendary mystical settlement of Baha Pur (translated as “Bach’s dwelling”) was located here.
Construction lasted from 1980 to 1986 (although the idea of construction itself arose in 1921). It was financed by followers of the Baha'i religion. The approximate cost of the stone masterpiece and decoration of the surrounding area is about 100 million rupees.
The Lotus Temple has received several architectural awards for its originality. Now it is open to the public.
What to see
The area of the temple complex is about 10 hectares. The house of worship is made in the style of structuralism.
The building has the shape of a lotus - ovals and circles symbolize the infinity of spiritual life. In total, the giant “flower” has 27 petals (arranged in 3 rows of nine). The construction material is white concrete, the outside of the petals are covered with slabs of white Greek marble. The height of the building is 34 m, diameter is about 70 m.
Inside, the temple amazes with its minimalism and simplicity: only benches for worshipers (there are no paintings, sculptures, or religious objects). The only “decoration” is the golden Baha’i sign under the dome of the shrine. 1,300 people can pray at the same time in the central hall; the acoustics here are amazing. Thanks to unique ventilation, the building is cool even in the heat.
Around the stone “lotus” there are flower beds and 9 huge pools: it seems that it really grows out of the water. Moreover, nine is the symbolic number of paths for a true Baha'i. Therefore, the shrine has 9 doors, on different sides.
You can also see the tomb in Old Delhi
The ancient city of Changzhou is located in the Chinese province of Jiangsu. There are many interesting historical and modern attractions, among which the most notable is the modern cultural center The Lotus Building, built in 2013, made in the shape of three giant lotus buds.
The creator of a unique architectural project in one of the Chinese cities was the Australian company 505 Studio. An unusual shaped building “grows” in the center of an artificial lake, which makes it even more like a lotus flower. The Lotus Building project is like a magnificent art installation. In appearance In the building, the architects reflected the three stages of development of a bud, which turns from a sprout into a luxurious flower.
To give the building of the cultural center the maximum resemblance to a real lotus flower, hexagonal mosaic slabs of beige and soft pink colors were used for its cladding. They create a wonderful volume effect and, thanks to their ribbed structure, have a translucent appearance. The Lotus Building looks especially beautiful at night. Thanks to the original multi-colored lighting, the building turns into a magical fairy-tale flower.
Around the Lotus building, the People's Park was laid out, where there is a modern art and gallery building. The cultural center The Lotus Building has become a popular modern attraction in Changzhou and a favorite vacation spot for citizens.