Stoned! The Chandigarh Rock Garden

We have forgiven American Airlines for not letting us add a long stop over in London to our around-the-world tickets. We had thoughts of going to Cyprus - not such a good place to be right now it turns out. Our only choices were to either spend the last month of our trip in India, or go home early. Luckily we chose 'stay' not 'go' which is how we found ourselves visiting hill stations in the north as well as having an extra day to spend in Chandigarh, an almost brand new modern city created right after Partition and designed by world famous architects such as Le Corbusier and Maxwell Fry. We visited the stunning High Court Building (sorry, no photos allowed) usually closed to visitors but fortunate David had a business card which identified him as an attorney. So we were allowed inside to stare opened mouthed at the soaring inner space made entirely of poured concrete. The building (designed by Le Corbusier) has stood the test of time and remains a stunning master piece of modern architecture.Our very favorite visit, however was to the Rock Garden created by Nek Chand. It practically defies description. And the pictures I took (see below) hardly do it justice. Because I was totally enchanted with the small figures modeled from spare parts I spent time taking pictures of just a few of the 1,600 on view in the park.Wikipedia says it better than I ever could:The Rock Garden of Chandigarh is a Sculpture garden in Chandigarh, India, also known as Nek Chand's Rock Garden after its founder Nek Chand, a government official who started the garden secretly in his spare time in 1957. Today it is spread over an area of forty-acres (160,000 m²), it is completely built of industrial & home waste and thrown-away items.The garden is most famous for its sculptures made from recycled ceramic and completely built of industrial & home waste and thrown-away items.Waterfall at Rock Garden, ChandigarhIt is situated near Sukhna Lake. It consists of man-made interlinked waterfalls and many other sculptures that have been made of scrap & other kinds of wastes (bottles, glasses, bangles, tiles, ceramic pots, sinks, electrical waste, etc.) which are placed in walled paths.In his spare time, Chand began collecting materials from demolition sites around the city. He recycled these materials into his own vision of the divine kingdom of Sukrani, choosing a gorge in a forest near Sukhna Lake for his work. The gorge had been designated as a land conservancy, a forest buffer established in 1902 that nothing could be built on. Chand’s work was illegal, but he was able to hide it for eighteen years before it was discovered by the authorities in 1975. By this time, it had grown into a 12-acre (49,000 m2) complex of interlinked courtyards, each filled with hundreds of pottery-covered concrete sculptures of dancers, musicians, and animals.His work was in serious danger of being demolished, but he was able to get public opinion on his side, and in 1976 the park was inaugurated as a public space. Nek Chand was given a salary, a title ("Sub-Divisional Engineer, Rock Garden"), and a workforce of 50 laborers so that he could concentrate full-time on his work. It even appeared on an Indian stamp in 1983.The Rock Garden is still made out of recycled materials; and with the government’s help, Chand was able to set up collection centers around the city for waste, especially rags and broken ceramics.When Chand left the country on a lecture tour in 1996, the city withdrew its funding, and vandals attacked the park. The Rock Garden Society took over the administration and upkeep of this unique visionary environment.The garden is visited by over five thousand people daily, with a total of more than twelve million visitors since its inception.