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 place 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 white marble. 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, it is necessary to maintain complete silence and turn off mobile phones. These measures are being taken due to increased acoustics inside the structure.
New Delhi is the most popular tourist city in India; there are many different tourist sites, but the main one is the Lotus Temple. India has received a large influx of tourists thanks to this building as well. The official name of the temple is “Baha’i House of Worship”, but it is called “lotus” due to its unusual shape in the form of a blossoming flower of the same name.
Who are the Baha'is?
This faith is fundamentally different from all others; it preaches the unity of all humanity. The basic principles of Baha'ism are considered to be the equality of men and women, the harmony of faith and science, and the absence of racial and religious prejudices. The founder of this faith is considered to be Hussein-Ali-i-Nuri - this is the real name of the creator, but he was called Bahá'u'lláh. This man was born in Persia, and for many years he preached his vision of peace and equality. Since all people are equal, everyone can enter the Lotus Temple, no matter what their skin color, gender, religion.
The symbol of this faith is a nine-pointed star; it is always displayed in the architecture of temples. A "Bahá'í house of worship" must be only round in shape and have nine corners, there are no pulpits, images or altars. Looking carefully at the photo of the Lotus Temple in New Delhi, you can see that it consists of 27 petals, all these petals are combined in threes, thereby creating nine angles - the canons of this faith are observed.
Typical Baha'i temple
There are no priests familiar to the average person here, and various ritual ceremonies are not held in the temple. Here you will not see servants of God, only ordinary volunteers work who make sure everything is calm and answer questions from tourists. The duties of these people include conducting prayer programs. The point of these programs is to read various sacred texts of any religion. The Lotus Temple (New Delhi) conducts chanting completely without any musical accompaniment, this is a distinctive feature of the Baha'i faith.
This building occupies a significant area, rising 40 meters above the ground. The architect of this incredible structure is Fariborz Sahba, he managed to design the temple exactly as required by the Baha'i faith. The architect was inspired by the Sydney Opera House.
Unique temple
The large surrounding area houses 9 pools, which create the impression that the flower is standing on the water and surrounded by the world’s oceans. They serve not just as decoration of the area, but as a natural ventilation system. Thanks to the water, cool air enters the temple hall, and warm air leaves through the dome openings. Thanks to this, the building always maintains fresh and fairly cool air with moderate humidity.
The place where the Lotus Temple was built has long been considered sacred; here was the settlement of Baha Pur, translating into our language “The Habitation of Baha.” The building itself was built only in 1986. Considering that the attractions are supposed to be ancient, this structure is considered very young. Funds for it were collected by Baha'is from all over the world; the building was constructed of marble, concrete and dolomite. The temple can accommodate up to 1,300 people at the same time.
Why was the lotus chosen?
It was not without reason that the architect decided to create the Lotus Temple in exactly this form; the photos clearly demonstrate its greatness. India is a country with an ancient history and this flower is often mentioned in ancient sacred texts. There are also many legends associated with the lotus.
This flower has special significance for many Indian religions. A large number of gods are depicted with a lotus flower or they were seated on it. There is no need to go too deep, just remember the image of Buddha, it is called the “lotus heart”. In the old days, people living in India believed that this flower (in its enormous size) floats on the surface of the ocean.
Even to this day, the lotus remains a symbol of India. It is quite remarkable that this plant is sacred not only to Indians, but also to many other countries, such as China and Egypt. In China, the lotus was revered long before the spread of Buddhism - it is a symbol of chastity and purity. It follows from this that the Lotus Temple is truly for all people, and not just for a certain denomination.
Rules of conduct
Anyone can always visit the Lotus Temple, since there are no clergy here, special volunteers keep order. As in any similar institution, there are rules here that must be followed unquestioningly. Prohibited:
- take photos/videos;
- talk loudly;
- enter the temple wearing shoes;
- touch anything with your hands or take objects with you.
By violating these rules, you can get into very big problems with the law.
Entrance to the building is completely free, if a person is tired, there are chairs inside where anyone can relax.
The temple is quite clean, which cannot be said about the rest of the city. Before entering, volunteers line up all visitors and tell them about the history of this unique place. Unfortunately, very often people are not allowed into the park, all the paths are blocked, so it is not possible for an ordinary person to walk around this place in a circle.
Conclusion
In Delhi, every local resident knows where this temple is located, therefore, upon arriving in the city, you can ask any person how to get to the building, and they will tell you everything in detail.
This Indian landmark has become incredibly popular in recent years, attracting more tourists every year than the Eiffel Tower. The Taj Mahal is also second in popularity to the Lotus Temple.
A distinctive feature of this structure is that it welcomes everyone; every person, regardless of faith and skin color, can visit this new Wonder of the World. The main thing is to take off your shoes before entering.
Overall, this is a very interesting building that every tourist who comes to the capital of India should visit. After all, the Baha'i faith is quite unique in its kind and it is worth touching at least a little on the fact that all people on earth are equal and the same.
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 already 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 the interior of 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.
The Lotus Temple is one of the most amazing temples in India, located in close proximity to New Delhi. The place for the construction was not chosen by chance; once upon a time the sacred village of Baha Pur was located here. Baha translated from Arabic means light, brilliance, splendor. It is noteworthy that the land for the construction of the temple was purchased back in 1953, but construction began only in 1980. During these less than 30 years, followers of the Baha'i faith collected more than 100 million rupees, with which the temple was built.
Construction took 6 years, from 1980 to 1986. The architect was a Canadian of Iranian origin, Fariborz Sahba. It is curious that the temple was designed on a computer, and all calculations took two and a half years. The architect's imagination gave it the appearance of a lotus flower that began to bloom. The Lotus Temple is a Baha'i house of worship and one of the most striking buildings in modern Delhi.
The idea of building a Lotus Temple dates back to 1921, when the nascent community of Mumbai approached the Supreme Ruler for permission to build a temple. They were given the answer that a temple of worship of God would soon be built in one of the largest cities in India.
But prophecies about such a temple arose several centuries ago, when the Mughal dynasty dreamed of building a majestic palace, and this was more than 400 years ago under Shah Akbar.
800 people took part in the construction of the Lotus Temple. Upon completion, it became one of the most visited and recognizable landmarks in India. What is unusual is that the inside of the temple is completely devoid of religious objects and paintings. Instead, it carries deep meaning precisely as a structure, an ideal and symbolic lotus flower. The Lotus Temple supports the ancient tradition of Indian culture in a new way: the structure is deeply symbolic, charged with philosophical meaning. The temple imitating a lotus seems to carry a message to everyone who sees it - it would be difficult to choose a more suitable form for a modern temple than the divine pure lotus flower.
The purity of the lotus silently sets one in a high mood and removes any contradictions.
The ideas about this flower among eastern peoples go back to ancient times, when there were no temples and religions on earth. The flower that grew in the swamp personified the spiritual path of a person capable of going through all the hardships of life. If he withstood the tests sent and did not succumb to vice, such a soul was considered pure.
The only goal of human life was considered to be the return of the soul to where it came from in this dirty world of vices. He personifies the swamp. The Lotus flower means improvement of the soul, comprehension of the highest meaning of human life. This is what eastern religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism talk about.
If you look at the Lotus Temple from above, it seems as if it “grew” out of the water.
The lotus is a sublime flower, which gives you a feeling of something unearthly, unnatural, especially when you are inside the temple. 27 stone petals made of concrete are covered with Greek white marble, and the central hall can be accessed through 9 doors. The diameter of the hall is 75 meters, the height is 31 meters and it can accommodate 1,300 people. Nine pools-lakes were built between the outermost corners, symbolizing the very swamp where the lotuses grow. However, the water in them, thanks to good care, is very clean and clear.
There are also many ponds around the lotus flower, and all this is connected into a symmetrical figure when viewed from above. And with the onset of darkness, a special backlight turns on, illuminating the petals, and it looks even more like a creation of nature, and not of human hands.
The building has a unique ventilation system, it is based on the principles of ventilation of ancient buildings. Warm air from the central hall exits through an opening in the dome, and cool air, passing through a system of water pools and the foundation, enters the hall, so the air inside the temple is always fresh and cool.
The temple is visited by a lot of tourists. Before setting foot on the temple alley, everyone who comes will be asked to take off their shoes, which will be stored free of charge in a specially designated place. Entrance to the temple is free, but all tourists are warned not to take pictures, make noise, or even film it.
People are allowed inside in groups that form right at the entrance; conversations are prohibited inside the temple. It's very quiet and cool there. Under the very dome of the Lotus Temple there is a huge golden Bahai sign. Underneath it are several rows of chairs where you can meditate, delve into the vastness of yourself, think about the meaning of life and other eternal values.
