March 30, 2017 Comments Off on The Lotus Temple: Mother Temple of India Views: 1686 Urban Trekker

Located nearby the India capital city of Delhi, and resembling a Bahai House of Worship, the Lotus Temple was completed in 1986. Also called a mother temple of India, it is visited by more than 10,000 people each day.

The Lotus Temple is open to all, expressing a belief that it’s a social venue for all individuals regardless their religions. “It is in line with the teachings of the Bahai faith believing in the Oneness of God, the Oneness of Religions, and the Oneness of Mankind. As such, people of all religions and races are welcome in the temple as it is a place to worship the creator of the universe and not one particular deity. There is no idol to be worshiped and people of any faith, case, creed are welcome,” other accounts also report.

The fantastic building is comprised of 27 free-standing marble-blad “petals” arranged in clusters of three and forming nine sides in total. There are also nine doors opening into a central hall with a height of slightly over 40 meters. The authentic look has brought numerous architecture awards to the temple. A 2001 CNN report has also called the Lotus Temple as the world’s most visited building.

The surface of the Lotus Temple is made of white marble from Penteli mountain in Greece, the exact same marble from which many ancient monuments, the Parthenon of Athens included, are built. The marvelous construction is an output of the Iranian architect Fariborz Sahba who was approached for the temple’s design in 1976.

Part of the electricity for the temple is supplied by solar means generated by the building itself, which makes the Lotus Temple the first in Delhi to use solar power resource. The major funds for purchasing the land where the temple is built was donated by Ardishír Rustampúr, a man who reportedly gave his entire savings for this purpose in 1953. A portion of the construction budget was also saved and used to build a greenhouse for the purposes of studying indigenous plants and flowers.

The Bahai House of Worship is one of seven such houses around the globe. Other worship sites are situated in Sydney (Australia), Panama City (Panama), Frankfurt (Germany), Kampala (Uganda), Apia (Western Samoa) and Wilmette (USA).

Tags: Delhi, India, Lotus Temple