Religious kitsch-di (updated)
The seven-month-old Akshardham megatemple in East Delhi, like the movie Fanaa, remixes old with modern in a way less innovative than kitschy (thanks, busybee). I haven’t visited yet, but it’s hard to imagine how animatronics, musical fountains and a Pirates of the Caribbean-like boat ride can be merged with the grandeur of religion without a smirk. A triumph of maximalism, the project sometimes looks like a palace, sometimes like a chintzy Bollywood set. You half expect a drunken Shah Rukh pining for Paro on its shore.
The mashup of intranational styles, of Oriya - Rajasthani - Jain - Gujarati, is gratifying. Skyscrapers are the new temples, and I a modernist, but sandstone is warmer and more human-scale than steel. That’s by material constraint rather than by design — the temple seems built to rival the Venkateshwara temple in Tirupati or St. Peter’s in the Vatican.
Check out photos of the temple and its construction.
Update: Also check out the Buddhist hell theme park in Vietnam and news of a Vegas-style miniature temple city in planning by the Hare Krishnas:
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness plans to set up a religious theme park at Tirupati… This Buddhist theme park will depict the life of Buddha and Nagarjuna and throw light on the Ikshavaku dynasty… The theme park will also comprise miniature models of top Indian temples. [Link]
Update 2: Siddhartha thinks it’s orientalist.
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Sandstone mahal |
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Mughal design |
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Animatronic history |
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Singing fountain |
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Wicked octopus-like war mount |
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And now for the ancient Indian art of pressure jets |
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on Friday, June 9th, 2006, 2:26 pm in Religion › 
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Modern hinduism is a kitschy religion Manish. This temple, intricately carved and assembled with traditional materials and methods, is high art compared to other Delhi landmarks from the genre.
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P.S. Stick around in Mumbai till Ganesh Chaturthi and you’ll see what I am talking about.
fascinating - and for me, quite timely - i was showing some photos of the qut’b minar and someone commented -oh does this pre-date the british - it was an innocent comment from an older person who also happens to be a proud sovereigntist - to his mind, the englishbrought infrasstucture to india - now the thing is, i was hard pressed to demonstrate anything of note in the post-colonial india. this is a dramatic example.
out of curiosity, does anyone know of any other modern landmark buildings… the baha’ii lotus temple came to mind… any others?
Not exactly a landmark…but anyways.
Ambedkar Udyan, Lucknow
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Synchronized fountains and animatronics aren’t to my taste, but the architecture and sculptures look awesome. Love the picture of stone carvers at work.
I visited Akshardham a little over three years ago with my in-laws. As a non-desi the whole experience had a Disney theme park feel to it and everything seemed artificial. It looks fantastic in the photos with the right lighting, but up close you could tell that it was constructed with modern material but made to look ancient. The gift shop and the food court at the end seemed a bit distracting and commercial. I much preferred the Jain temple at Ranakpur, from the long winding drive up to the temple and the relative isolation from city. There were no gift shops, restaurants, or people selling postcards or other trinkets. Just a guided tour from one of the priests who asked for a small donation at the end. Ranakpur had integrity and soul.
I would rather go to any Swaminarayan temple then any “traditional Hindu temple”. Because the later are dirty from inside. When you go to the former at least a nice clean environment is met with, and whats wrong with using modern high tech in temples, anyways??
I went to one such “famous traditional Hindu” temple in Gujarat and the “priest” inside was asking people what caste they were?? How pathetic and sick !!! I will never visit that place again ever in my life. On top of being racist the temple was DIRTY !!!
I could not even imagine how it would be at some of the more famous “traditional” temples. I will pass !!!
I would rather go to the Golden temple in amritsar or Houston Swaminarayan temple or Akshardham.
It just goes to show you can’t be too careful!
Where did you get the picture of sculptors working on the Swaminarayan statues for Akshardham?
Link’s changed, should be somewhere in here.
Also check out these gorgeous shots.