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Lotus Temple, India

Posted by Babul Bhatt (Bombay, India) on 16 March 2008 in Architecture and Portfolio.

The Bahá'í temple in Delhi, India 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. The architect was an Iranian, who now lives in Canada, named Fariborz Sahba.

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.

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. 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.
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NIKON D50
1/1600 second
F/3.5
27 mm

temple
lotus
delhi
babul
bhatt