International Sand Art Festival, Chandrabhaga Beach, Konark, Odisha

The Konark Sun Temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is situated about 70 km away from Odisha's sprawling and beautiful capital, 'Temple City' Bhubaneswar. Every winter, around the first week of December, Odisha Tourism organises two conjoined events of great importance in Konark, namely The International Sand Art Festival at Chandrabhaga Beach of Konark and The Konark Dance Festival with the splendid 13th Century Konark Temple as the backdrop of divine Indian classical dance performances.

I had the great fortune of attending the 2012 edition of both these events at Konark which were held from December 1st to 5th. I went on only a single day (2nd December) yet was able to fully immerse myself in the grandeur of these events such that it has remained etched in my mind ever since. This post is dedicated to reliving my International Sand Art Festival experience, and I'll present my Konark Dance Festival experience in an exclusive post, which it rightfully deserves.

I've preserved the fab invite too!

 

An invite to mesmerise the depths of your soul!

Internationally-renowned sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik, recently awarded with Padma Shri, has been the Brand Ambassador of this major festival- a congregation of sand artists from around the world. Around 30 sand artists from Japan, France, Korea, Germany, Norway and of course India had put up their exquisite sand arts in a row that day. I was actually dumb-struck as I was seeing sand-art in front of my eyes, LIVE, for the first time in my life! A less-known fact (quoting from the invite) is that: prevalence of sand sculpture in Odisha dates back to the 14th Century. No wonder, the golden sands of Odisha's pristine 450 km coastline surely provide the perfect canvas to build the most breath-taking sand-arts in the world!


I'll let pictures do the talking now! Time to get amazed!

The Monk from Germany!

The Enchantress from Korea

From Norway with Love

The Buddha getting enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree is depicted beautifully here

Seven Wonders of the World are in the making...in sand! :)

A "Globalised" Ganesha is depicted here! Ganapati Bappa Moriya! :D

The crowd only increased as the sun was close to setting! All around me I could hear so many languages of India- Tamil, Bengali, Telugu, Hindi, English & of course Odia! :)

One of the few women sand-artists...she was from Mumbai

One of the Odisha Sand Artists (Dibakara Mallick) had made this calm, serene Buddha Sand Art! Really exquisite!

Front view of the breath-takingly b'ful Buddha Sand Art

The Big Picture~~ 30 grand sand-art exhibits in a row....each telling a different and touching story :)

As evening turned to dusk by the time I reached the end of 30 magnificent exhibits, I could not resist capturing the captivating, pristine, serene Chandrabhaga Beach view...:)

I could not help but notice how exquisite this art-form is, though short-lived. By the time it was dusk, a little sand had started crumbling from some of the arts. My heart's connection had been built with each of the arts and it was a bit sad, yet enrapturing how gravity gave way. The sand was crumbling humbly, ever so slowly...bit by bit, for few of the exhibits. As floodlights came on, the sand-arts looked divine under the glorious night sky twinkling with a myriad stars.

Heading towards the gate and turning back to click a photo, I realised I was completely awed by my first experience of International Sand Art Festival. Hope to make it again and again, as the Festival grows bigger and bigger each year! :D

2013 Edition just passed! Looks grander, doesn't it?! :)