Silpi Bronze Memorial

This is Holly Young at her studio on Wednesday morning.

This is a sketch of the final memorial, which will go near Iraivan.

Holly is a genius, an amazingly gifted sculptor.

With simple tools, she makes amazing works.

This is her sketch of how Ganapati Sthapathi would bow before Gurudeva.

His blueprints are under his left arm.

Looking down.

A South India sash around his waist.

Holly shows swami her next work

Next comes a silpi sharpening chisels.

This is how it begins!

Thank you, Holly.

}
];

height: 540,
width: 700,
imageCrop:true,

transitionSpeed:150});

Today is a magical day, the 63rd anniversary of Gurudeva's initiation by Yogaswami on the full moon day in May of 1949. We celebrate with this slideshow of the progress of the silpi memorial he decreed we make for Iraivan Temple.

Gurudeva instructed the monks to create a bronze memorial that shows the ancient skills that built this temple. He realized future pilgrims would not have the benefit of seeing the silpis at work, and this would give them a visualization, and since it would be in bronze, it would last as long as the temple itself.

At the center stands Gurudeva, who is sharing with the master architect his visions and instructions for building Iraivan.

Around them seven stone sculptors are working on the various stages, from quarrying to rough shaping, marking, fine sculpting and chisel sharpening.

Gurudeva's statue done, Holly moved on to Ganapati Sthapathi, the temple architect. Sadasivanathaswami and Arunuganathaswami flew to the Big Island Wednesday to visit her studio and approve the final was work before molds are made in preparation for the bronze casting in Colorado in the months ahead. See what they saw...