Indian President Pratibha Patil is scheduled to inaugurate the beiged color two-storied shrine at Luoyang in Henan on May 27 during her visit to China. Once opened to tourists and pilgrims, the shrine will become the most visible Indian presence in China and also a symbol of shared heritage between the two countries.
The White Horse temple, the first Buddhist temple to be built in China, was also based on inspiration derived from India. India has finally exported to China an architectural resemblance of the Sanchi Stupa near Bhopal and the cultural aspects of the Sarnath shrine near Varanasi, about 14 centuries after pilgrim Hieun Tsang took Buddhism across the Himalayas.
A shrine that closely resembles the Sanchi Stupa has been built by the Indian government near the famous White Horse temple, the first Buddhist temple in China, in Henan province.
“This is an architectural impression of Sanchi. We have tried to recreate its fine work and even put up a gate similar to Sanchi’s east gate,” art historian Kapila Vatsyayan, who conceptualized the shrine in Henan, disclosed. “As an artist, I felt Sanchi is best suited to represent Indian Buddhist tradition. It is a completely intact.
But it has no idol. So we took the image of Sarnath Buddha,” she said.
“There is a perception that India and China are distant in history with little to do with each other. This temple is a reminder that we are actually quite close,” S.Jaishankar, India’s ambassador in China, said.
The shrine, built on 6000 sq meters of land in the White Horse temple complex, is a two-storied structure with engraved panels depicting scenes from the Jataka tales and the life of Buddha along the circular walls on both the floors.
The middle portion is a hallow congresstional hall with the statue of Buddha, which is based on the 5th century idol of the god from Sarnath.
“We have derived inspiration from the Sanchi Stupa and other Buddhist monastraies in India while using using modern building techniques,” Raka Chakravarty of the Delhi based architechtural firm, said Akshaya Jain and Raka Chakravarty, which designed the shrine.
China allotted a piece of land for the shrine inside the White Horse temple complex in 2005 in what was seen as a significant political gesture to revive the cultural relationship between the two countries.
Source : http://www.asiantribune.com
