The Beauty of Lies has moved to KirkKittell.com (Subscribe to the RSS feed). This post has been copied to http://kirkkittell.com/2008/04/10/mapped-photos-from-chandigarh-india-jan-2006.
This post about my trip to northern India in 2005-2006 is preceded by photos from New Delhi and Agra.
On 2 January 2006, Megha and her family took me to the Rock Garden in Chandigarh, just to the north of their home in Ambala.
The audacious background of the Rock Garden was just as interesting as the sculptures and the architecture. The Rock Garden is a pile of junk. Nek Chand, the force and vision behind the project, created the garden -- a 40-acre spread of sculptures, waterfalls, towers, and courtyards -- from scrap and waste. Discarded wires, porcelain, industrial materials, broken bangles, pieces of glass bottles -- all pieces of rubbish individually, but part of something whole and substantial when brought together; it is much more than a pile of junk.
The most striking aspect of the Rock Garden, to me, is the dedication -- I mean obsession -- that must have driven Nek Chand to continue working on it. It's not that hard to initiate something small, a few sculptures that can be hidden away with no effort, but to work in secret for nearly 20 years, creating an enormous work of art out of the forest... I can't even imagine it. I can only wonder if, somewhere, in the back of his head, he had an idea that he knew was so incredible that he had to follow through with it. Or maybe he was just passing time, keeping his hands busy and the art created itself.
If you're ever passing through northern India, through Punjab, I highly recommend that you stop at the Rock Garden for a long stroll through Nek Chand's masterpiece. And while you're there, take your time, wander. As a bonus during my trip there, we met Nek Chand for a few minutes in his studio, which is located in the garden itself.
- Rock Garden [wikipedia.org]
- Nek Chand Foundation [nekchand.com]
Have a look at the camera icons on the map below, which shows where the photos were snapped. Can't see everything in this window? Open it as a larger map.
If you use Google Earth, you can download the network link file for this trip to your My Places. Your placemarks will automatically be updated when I add photos to the rest of this trip, including Dak Patthar, Ambala, Allahabad, and Kolkata.
