Greek marble, Italian masonry, Indian money and an Iranian religion. The Baha’i Lotus Temple in Delhi exemplifies the potential for a global world to create lasting monuments. Few buildings built in the 20th and 21st century in India are as evocative as the Lotus Temple – a facet of its Expressionist architecture.
A nine-sided structure comprised of 27 marble leaves, resting in concentric waves upon each other to create the image of a lotus. The nine outer leaves demarcate the nine entrances to the temple, and serve as a roof for the supporting spaces. The inner leaves converge to form the main structure.
I tried to study, with detachment, the temples of India so that I might imbibe the maximum from the rich Indian culture.
Fariborz Sahba, the Canadian-Iranian architect behind the temple, travelled the length and breadth of India in search of inspiration for the temple. After a point, the lotus stood out to him wherever he went – from the prompting of Baha’i friends to the inscriptions in the caves of Ellora and Ajanta.
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