Beginning with the 12,000-year-old cave paintings of Bhimbetka, up to the Bah'ai House of Worship, a blinding masterpiece of 20th-century engineering and design, the wealth of creative genius, brilliant skill and endeavor of its people are evident in India's man-made wonders. Between the soaring medieval temples of the South and dramatically perched Buddhist monasteries of the North; the uniquely ornamented stepwells of the West and the grand Victoria Memorial, a symbol of British supremacy in the East, lie massive forts, fairy-tale palaces, tombs of Sultans, ruined ancient cities, statuesque cathedrals, and of course, the resplendent Taj Mahal. Along with these are the wonders bestowed on India by nature. In a country blessed with astoundingly diverse ecology and terrain, these range from the mighty Himalayan peaks of Nanda Devi and Kanchenjunga to the elephant-inhabited lush tropical forests of Periyar, and from the pristine-white island beaches of Lakshadweep to the tiger-infested delta of two legendary rivers: the Ganga and the Brahmaputra. Showcased in this book, in a feast of lavish colour photographs and lucid text, are 100 fabulous destinations that evoke the wonder that is India.
Religion is as old as humans. It was born out of amazement, fear and respect of natural phenomena. The book offers a fascinating glimpse of the abiding physical anchorages of mankind's relationship with the spiritual. The book looks at some of these places, across religions, geographies and politics, man-made structures and creations of nature, misty antiquity and the modern age. The origin, establishment and evolution of each site are placed in historical or legendary context, with an elucidation of the basic tenets of the religion it represents. Besides featuring the fundamental foci of the large religions, such as Christianity's Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and Islam's Kaaba, there are those belonging to the smaller faiths, like Shintoism, Bahai' and Sikhism as well as primal beliefs. The scale ranges from the diminutive hut-like structure in remembering the cowboy-saint Gauchito Gil in the Argentinean deserts, to the massive mountain of Mansarovar that inspires Buddhist and Hindu pilgrims to trek to the wind-blown Tibetan plateau. Sacred Sites offers a fascinating glimpse of the abiding physical anchorages of mankind's relationship with the spiritual.
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