Welcome back to another episode of the series Incredible India. In the previous episode, I talked about one of Delhi's oldest forts,Purana Qila (Old Fort). Whereas in this episode we will talk about a modern structure. A temple is called the Lotus Temple.

Lotus Temple (Bahá'í Temple)

Lotus Temple ( or Bahá'í Temple) is a temple for worship for the people of the Bahá'í religion. I don't know much about their religion but the temple is open to people of every religion and the main temple hall is used mainly for meditation. The temple complex didn't have any idols. As I gathered from my visit, their main belief is the unity of all religions and humanity.

Lotus Temple with one of the 9 water pools

At first look, it doesn't look like a temple at all. Well, nothing like a Hindu, Jain or Buddhist temple. Its construction finished in Dec 1986 and was opened to the public on 1st Jan 1987.^[source] Due to its unique design and architecture, it quickly became a famous spot for tourists.

Lotus Temple, Delhi

How to reach

The lotus temple is situated in Kalkaji, New Delhi. You can easily reach the temple if you take the metro to Kalkaji Mandir Metro Station and from there only 10 min walk to the temple.

Alternatively, if you are coming via air, you can land at Indira Gandhi Internation (IGI) Airport and take a private cab/taxi from here or just take the metro from there too.

Architecture and Design

As you can see that it is not designed as a regular temple with a domed structure on top. Rather it has those beautiful white marble-clad (petals) that resembles the white lotus flower and hence the name, Lotus Temple.

Close-up view of concrete petals

There is a large spacious hall inside with no Idols or paintings or any religious text engraved on the walls. There are benches for probably a thousand people in here to sit and meditate.

Sadly no mobile phones or cameras are allowed inside for me to show you how it looks. Which makes it a perfect place for people who just want to meditate and relax without any outside stimulus. You are not supposed to disturb others here.

Water pool surrounding the structure

The temple itself is surrounded by 9 water ponds in a circular pattern improving the aesthetics of the building even more.

Lotus Temple as seen from far.

A large green park encompasses the temple on all sides.

Lush green garden in the complex

Lotus Temple through the trees

But visitors were not allowed to go there. You can see from the next couple of shots that this place attracts visitors from all over India.

Fellow Visitors enroute to the entrance of the temple

Beautiful lush green garden encompasses the structure.

Although the conditions were not ideal for visitors as the temperatures were close to 40 degrees Celsius on a sunny afternoon.

There was a building called Information centre, basically a museum for showing their unity of religion related artefacts. Photography was not permitted there too.

Information Center at the complex

It was not an ideal condition for photography, the sun was too bright and it washed out all the photos. Nevertheless, I tried to fix them in post-processing but it is what it is!.

I will leave you with some of the random shots of the place. If you ever come to visit Delhi, make sure to go to this place if you want some peace and want to meditate and relax. And try to avoid the heat in summers.

Pigeons having fun on the ground.

Let me know what are your thoughts about the place. Would you like to visit this place when/if you come to Delhi? And do give feedback on the post. Constructive criticism is always appreciated. Thanks for reading.

Namaste 🙏

Stay tuned for more episodes...

Ep - #1. Kailasa Temple

Ep - #2. Living Root Bridges of Meghalaya

Ep - #3. Humayun's Tomb

Ep - #4. Safdarjang's Tomb

Ep - #5. Purana Qila (Old Fort)

Note:

• All the content is mine unless otherwise stated.
• Photos were taken from Sony Zv1 camera and edited using the snapseed app.
• Text dividers are from @cryptosharan.

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