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Amsterdam to have 20-ft high sand Taj Mahal
9/11/2008

India's celebrated sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik is creating a 20-foot high replica of the Taj Mahal in the Dutch city of Amsterdam for the India Fest beginning on Wednesday.

Winner of several international awards including Moscow and Berlin championships of sand artists, Pattnaik will be using around 100 tonnes of sand to create the copy of the 17th century's Monument of Love, now included among the new Seven Wonders of the World, in front of Rijks Museum.

This will be his biggest sand Taj Mahal outside India with a height of approximately 20 feet. "Co-artists Manas Kumar Sahoo and Bulu Mohanty are helping me to create it by the 12th afternoon," Pattnaik told PTI over phone from Amsterdam.

"My aim is to create 100 sand Taj Mahals worldwide and the sand Taj in Amsterdam will be 38th," he added.

The Amsterdam-India Fest is a three week long cultural festival in the Dutch city of Tulips.

Organised by the Concert Hall society of Amsterdam in association with the City Hall and the Government of Netherlands, the India Festival from November 12-28 would be an all-round event comprising different aspects of Indian art, culture, cinema and cuisine in which many of the top artistes from India will take part.

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Now that has got to be worth trippin' on a tram for

Sculptor builds his 38th Taj Mahal in Amsterdam

10th November, 2008

Sudarshan Pattnaik, an acclaimed Indian artist, is building a sand Taj Mahal in this city of tulips - his 38th and biggest - in his quest to make such replicas in 100 places around the world.

Here for the three-week-long Amsterdam India Festival, he began carving Nov 7 and hopes to complete the Taj Mahal replica Wednesday. He is sculpting it in front of the Rijksmuseum.

"It is my dream to make the Taj Mahal in 100 cities around the world," Pattnaik, who runs a sand sculpture school at Puri in Orissa and won the world sand sculpture championship in Berlin in June, told IANS.

The Taj Mahal in Amsterdam will be approximately 20 feet tall and around 100 tonnes of sand will be used in creating it. Pattnaik will be helped by his co-artists Manas Kumar Sahoo and Bulu Mohanty.

Pattnaik has used his art to help out in various causes, including tsunami victims in India, endangered Olive Ridley Turtles, HIV/AIDS and polio.

The Nov 12-28 India Festival will present different aspects of Indian art, culture, cinema and cuisine.

Source

Another fine post, Puffin. Hope it stays up for when I arrive next week tho prob be blowin in the wind

I love India and it's culture, so I'm glad I'm out there this during the final week

Me too. Really lookin forward to all thats on offer this time round, 26th thru 28th. Hope I can get to witness something of the Cannabis Cup will try to go to something in the India Festival, the Voodoo exhibit in the Troppenmuseum looks appeaaling as does the IDFA.

Sounds interesting