Moscow: 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.
