By IANS,
Amsterdam : 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.