Qualla: Lotus Temple

Lotus Temple: Introduction

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jools Asher from England, CC BY 2.0. Twenty-seven marble petals, and not a single sermon. The Lotus Temple in New Delhi is a Baha'i House of Worship that has drawn over 100 million visitors since opening in 1987 -- more, by some counts, than the Taj Mahal over the same period. Yet most visitors know almost nothing about the Baha'i Faith when they arrive. They come because the building looks like nothing else on Earth: a half-opened lotus blossom rendered in white Pentelic marble, the same stone the Greeks used to build the Parthenon. Inside, the rules are simple. Anyone may enter. Sacred texts from any religion may be read aloud. No instruments may be played, no sermons delivered, no money collected. It is a building designed, quite literally, to hold silence.

Read more: Lotus Temple on Qualla

Image: Jools Asher from England | CC BY 2.0

Lotus Temple: The Architect and the Flower

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Paasikivi, CC BY-SA 3.0. When the Baha'i community approached Iranian-born architect Fariborz Sahba in 1976, they gave him an unusual brief: design a house of worship that belongs to no single tradition but welcomes all of them. Sahba chose the lotus, a flower sacred across Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam,...

Read more: Lotus Temple on Qualla

Image: Paasikivi | CC BY-SA 3.0

Lotus Temple: Nine Sides, No Altar

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rohan singh rawat, CC BY-SA 4.0. Baha'i scripture requires that every House of Worship be nine-sided and circular, but says nothing about domes, minarets, or steeples. The Lotus Temple fulfills the mandate with nine doors that open onto a central hall 34.3 meters tall, capable of seating 1,300 and holding up to ...

Read more: Lotus Temple on Qualla

Image: Rohan singh rawat | CC BY-SA 4.0

Lotus Temple: Greek Stone Under Delhi Skies

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ovjtphoto, CC BY-SA 3.0. The temple's surface is clad in white marble quarried from Mount Pentelikon in Greece, connecting a modern Indian temple to a lineage of stone that includes the Parthenon and the Temple of Zeus. The choice was both aesthetic and symbolic: Pentelic marble ages to a warm honey tone...

Read more: Lotus Temple on Qualla

Image: Ovjtphoto | CC BY-SA 3.0

Lotus Temple: A Hundred Million and Counting

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Paasikivi, CC BY-SA 3.0. When the Lotus Temple opened to the public on January 1, 1987, more than 10,000 people visited on the first day. The pace has not slowed. By 2001, CNN reported 70 million cumulative visitors. By 2014, India's permanent delegation to UNESCO put the number at over 100 million. On p...

Read more: Lotus Temple on Qualla

Image: Paasikivi | CC BY-SA 3.0