Carlo Sarion

Philippines | New Zealand - 21-Jan-24 -

Despite having flu that was worsened by the awful smog, I decided to visit the Lotus Temple on the morning of our last day in Delhi in December 2023. I was pretty sure I was gonna regret it if I didn’t visit the site since it was close to our hotel (we were staying in Friend's Colony). My visit turned out to be quite wonderful, contrary to what Ralf had unfortunately experienced. Some notes about my visit:

1. The Information Centre - the centre is at the opposite end of the walkway leading to the temple. It contains heaps of information about the Baha'i faith: its origin, contemporary history, basic teachings and philosophy, religious sites around the world, social work, and community service projects. The staff were nice and happy to answer any questions. The centre was therefore a must visit before you go to the temple itself. 

2. The temple (aka prayer hall) - first, entry into the temple is allowed. Shoes were to be deposited before you walk up the stairs. The security guards and ushers would then guide you and ask you to wait for your turn to enter the prayer hall. I found it quite organised and everything was flowing well despite the substantial amount of people arriving. When we got to the entrance of the prayer hall, the usher gave some reminders in Hindi and English. When we entered, we were asked to sit quietly to admire the interior architecture of the prayer hall. As it is of Baha'i faith, you cannot expect lavish decorations inside--it was minimalist and evoked peace and quiet. Some people left after a couple of minutes, while most stayed for another 10. One by one people left, and the next batch of visitors were asked to queue and wait. We then went down the stairs, collected our shoes and roamed around the gardens. There was nothing spectacular about the gardens, especially that you could only walk on paved walkways as the grass area and gardens were mostly cordoned off. However, you can definitely appreciate how the workers take care of the gardens. Some of the trees were meticulously trimmed and even looked like stalked pom-poms!

To avoid any inconvenience, it is best to check their website before visiting. It has info about what is not allowed to take with you (e.g., food, drinks, shoes, big luggage) and do inside the prayer hall (photography).

3. On inscription - in 2016, there were plans to submit a nomination dossier that was to be prepared by the India National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH). A year later, INTACH scrapped the plans, citing that the National Assembly of the Baha'i had reservations on the basis that they would no longer be able to add structures to the temple once inscribed. 

But what were the chances of Lotus Temple getting inscribed, had they gone ahead? They added the site to India's tentative list on the basis of criteria i, iv, and vi. It is hard to get a rather objective feel of its OUV when the justification is written in text with superlatives and flowery language (though this is of course a common practice across State Parties). In this case, I'd think that a better way to assess its chances for inscription is to look at it side by side with other similar properties. The State Party identified the following comparators:

a. Bahá’i Holy Places in Haifa and the Western Galilee, Israel - how would the Lotus Temple fare with the two most holy places of the Baha'i faith (Shrines of Baha’u’llah and Bab) in terms of being a testimony to the religion and its traditions? I guess weighing them up is a futile or even counter-productive exercise, but this could give you an idea of their relative importance to the Baha'i faith. Is it reasonable to consider it as an extension to the ones in Israel? Personally, I don't think so.

b. Sydney Opera House - both are modern structures that are architecturally remarkable and involved advanced engineering at the time of development and construction. I wouldn't want to comment which one is aesthetically better--that's ludicrous. But I wouldn't deny the fact that I do love the Opera House.

In any case, if the plans of getting the Lotus Temple nominated materialise, I'd like to see how they would articulate its OUV and deep-dive into its comparative analysis.

Ralf Regele

Germany - 01-Aug-17 -

The Lotus temple in New Delhi is a Bahai temple built in modern style - something special in a land where almost all places of worship are built in a traditional style. The design of the temple is quite pleasing and sure looks good on photos, however actually visiting the place can be a bit underwhelming. Firstly, visiting takes a bit of effort - you can't just walk in. Arriving is the easiest part - you can take the Delhi metro to get near and then walk the rest (or take the inescapable tuk-tuk). You then have to wait in a long queue - there are a lot of other tourists (mainly indians) who want to visit the temple. Don't take any bottles with you (even empty ones) - they throw them away, then send you back to the end of the queue. After entering, you have to deposit your shoes at a busy storage station and walk through the gardens without them, all while being pushed around in a long stampede of visitors. The gardens are well-kept, but offer nothing special. The view of the main building could be great if the Delhi smog does not spoil it - you are still within the city's dust dome. You can't enter the temple itself, but you can peek inside and see that it is almost completely empty - no lavish treasure, statues or decorations in this temple. You will not learn much about the Bahai faith, and don't expect any spiritual experiences.

Maybe I am a bit harsh on the site here. It is a imposing building, however for the european eyes it looks too similar to any modernist multi-purpose hall, and it doesn't offer the exotic flair you expect from an indian temple. I fail to see the WHS potential - the Bahai faith is already well represented with its very own WHS, and there are a lot of modernist buildings that can offer similar architectural merits.

Visited November 2015

Importance: 2/5 Beauty: 3/5 Uniqueness: 4/5 Environment: 3/5 Experience: 2/5