Ashish Patel

Around the world amazing things have happened, from historic monuments to once-in-a-lifetime astronomical events. We are definitely witnessing a historical monument here in Toronto. On Highway 427 and Finch Avenue, a Swaminarayan Mandir is nearly complete. In basic english terms a Mandir is a temple and Swaminarayan is one who is a devotee of Bhagwan Swaminarayan. I love architecture because its amazing what the hands of man can build given some time and care. This temple was build completely using hammers and chisels, thats right folks, it is hand-made.

Walls and ceilings are embellished with carved figures, both human and animal – everything from dancing women to elephants and peacocks. These are images of welcome, sensual but also serene. The fact that every element, big and small, is carved in stone, only makes the effect that much more astonishing. Indeed, the temple is a monument to skills largely lost in our mechanized age.
The materials – marble from India and Italy, limestone from Turkey – were shipped first to a series of villages in India where they were sculpted into their final form. The pieces were then transported to Toronto to be assembled. Given that there were more than 24,000 individual parts, this was no mean feat.

Here are some facts about the project:

• The project started in 2005 and opens officially in two weeks. Because work stopped during winter, actual construction time was only 18 months.
• The local Hindu community (there are 191,305 Hindus in Toronto, according to Statistics Canada), which paid for the $40 million building without any public or foundation funding and provided 400 volunteer workers, wants the world to know it has arrived.
• Despite the use of computers and high-tech equipment, the building itself could have been constructed several millennia ago. That is said because structures very similar, down to the detail, have been carved in India long time ago.
• The walls, for example, are all load-bearing; there’s no steel skeleton here holding the whole thing up. In fact, no steel was used at all, it’s stone piled on stone. The columns, of which there are 340, are solid rock (and rock solid). Even the delicately curved interiors of the domes are sculpted from marble and held in place with stone keys.
• “The cost has been kept down by a lot of in-kind labour offered by volunteers,” says volunteer Roy Patel. “We had to bring as many as 100 stone artisans and sompura (architects) from India to work on the project. We would appreciate any government financing, but so far none has been forthcoming.”

Source: http://www.thestar.com/News/article/233400