Lotus Temple

The Lotus Temple stands in the Bahapur area near Kalkaji in south Delhi. It is the Baha'i House of Worship for the Indian subcontinent and was dedicated in December 1986, opening to the public at the start of 1987. Like all Baha'i Houses of Worship, it is open to people of every religion or none.

The building was designed by the Iranian born architect Fariborz Sahba, who chose the lotus because the flower is linked with purity and worship across many traditions in India. The project took about ten years of design and construction.

The temple is formed of 27 free standing petals clad in white marble from Greece, arranged in clusters of three to form nine sides, as Baha'i temples have nine entrances. The structure rises to about 40.8 metres, with a diameter of around 70 metres, and surround a central hall that seats about 2,500 people. Nine pools and walkways around the base suggest the leaves of the lotus floating on water, and the surrounding gardens cover about 10 hectares.

Inside there are no images, statues or pulpits. Short readings from the scriptures of different faiths are sometimes held, but most of the time visitors sit in silence. The building has received several architecture and engineering awards and is one of the most visited buildings in India.

Entry is free. The temple is closed on Mondays, and visitors remove their shoes before entering and keep silent inside the hall. Kalkaji Mandir metro station is about a ten minute walk away. Late afternoon, when the marble catches the low sun, is a good time to visit, and queues are longest on weekends and holidays.

The marble on the petals is Pentelic marble quarried on Mount Pentelicus in Greece and cut in Italy before shipping. Structural engineering came from Flint and Neill of London, and the concrete shell was completed on 30 September 1986. The temple was dedicated on 24 December 1986 and opened to the public on 1 January 1987.

The design won the Institution of Structural Engineers award in 1987 and an Interfaith Forum honour award the same year. In its 2014 submission to UNESCO, India reported that more than 100 million people had visited since 1986.