It was late summer and the roses around the Bahá’í House of Worship, Langenhain, near Frankfurt, were at their peak of maturity, oozing with sweet attar and vying with one another in a burst of overwhelming colour. I was en route from Spain to Norway and had stopped in Langenhain for some days to photograph the temple.

The temple in Germany has an intriguing design and its interaction with nature is best revealed in sunshine. The windows in the dome are designed to make diamond shaped sunspots that play in the interior, adding an extra dimension to the pale cement as well as to the visitor’s own experience. Sitting in meditation with closed eyes you may imagine the warmth of God’s light shining into your own interior, and your soul as the reflection on the inside.

I started walking around the outside of the temple and crouched down to take a close-up of some roses. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw an old-time friend coming around the corner of the building, wrapped in prayer and contemplation. His unexpected appearance was such a surprise to me that I kept still. In that split second the emotions of old friendship combined with the beauty of it all; this harmony between man, architecture and nature, and I wept.

Years passed. I worked, studied and saved money. Then the possibility to finish the photographic journey of the temples finally arrived and I set out again. Samoa, Australia and India were next on the list.

I arrived safely in Western Samoa, felt rested and was eager to get straight to the House of Worship. The day was slightly cloudy with periodic rains so I hired a taxi to take me up the hill. Approaching by car you cannot easily see the temple from below and its appearance is somewhat sudden after the last curve of the road when the dense vegetation opens in front of you. There stands the temple on a gentle slope of the hill, its dome radiant white. On this day it was extra shiny after a recent rainfall. Had you been there you would have stepped into a garden where the open flowers share their secrets. You would have felt that you had come to a holy place, a garden of peace, and a place to be safe from the storm.

Inside the temple you can rest on the solid and simple wooden benches, while your eyes scan the delicate colour-shifts from the crimson red of the floor-tiles, past the brown of wooden details, and to the cream-white of the pointed dome. It may seem like a small building overall, but when inside you notice how wide the base actually is and outside the dome stretches well above the tall crowns of nearby trees. Maybe slender in stature, but thick with spirit!

I had been photographing the House of Worship for some days when a local artist and Bahá’í asked me to accompanying him to meet with a ‘government official’ as he needed me to take some photographs. During the drive there he filled out the picture a bit. We were in fact on our way to the King of Samoa’s birthday party! It turned out to be an evening I never will forget. What did my friend want me to photograph? A necktie he had made out of bark, quite beautiful mind you, and I wished I had gotten one myself.

Some flights later and after a bit of busing and asking around, I found myself at Mona Vale. I had seen the Mother Temple of Australasia from the air, but you don’t get an impression of its majesty from such a distance, and so I stood for a while musing its architecture and presence. It was a sunny day and the dark blue of the sky made for a nice contrast to the radiant building, so I took some photos right there and then.

During my visit to this temple I helped the gardener a bit. One day we had been pulling weeds for a while when I asked about dangerous animals in Australia. He mentioned that where we were working there might be both spiders and snakes, with red bellies and what not. So why were we working without reinforced rubber-boots and extra thick super gloves? Don’t ask me. I would gladly have endured the heat and the sweat! We don’t have such alarming creatures back in Norway!

However, I did not get bitten by any animal. Instead a fever strapped me to bed unexpectedly. I managed to have my ticket rearranged and left for India three days later, still a bit feverish. The temperature of events was also to rise a bit unexpectedly when I arrived for change of flights in Thailand and was asked to show my visa for India. Always check with the embassy, or risk being stuck in a country you did not intended to visit. I got to see quite a bit of Thailand while waiting for my visa. Unplanned, yes, but not a bad vacation.

I arrived in New Delhi too early in the morning. I have this weakness that upon arriving in a country I know little about, especially in the middle of the night, I have difficulty trusting people right away, and in particular taxi-drivers (may God forgive me). Inside the airport I was met with a cacophony of offers from seemingly legitimate taxi-companies - which they probably were - but cacophony is not exactly my thing. I put on my "I know where I am going" face and went out the exit and into the cool night.

I had passed half of the parked taxis when I came to a driver who wasn’t sleeping. By this time I had realised there probably were very few buses going to town at this hour and decided to trust this taxi-driver. I was fortunate. The man even stopped to get us both some breakfast on the way to town, and I had my first Indian cup of chai (tea with milk and ginger). Dawn was glowing on the horizon.

The sun rose that day to reveal a wonderful sight. On a big lawn, in a huge garden just outside the core of the city of New Delhi lay the Mother Temple of the Indian subcontinent.

My visit was late in the dry-season and the grass was struggling in places. But there was an abundance of flowers and plants around, and at the centre of it all, the Lotus-Temple, this biggest flower of them all, floating on a virtual pool of refreshing water. It is an overwhelming site for several reasons. Its shear size for one, its unique architecture not the least, but most significantly; its spiritual life.

The Lotus was the last temple on my route. I had no pressing obligations and so I stayed for several weeks, alternating between working as a guide at the temple and traveling the country. Then the time came to return home, although ‘home’ had little by little become less of a geographical place and more the sleeping-bag I always carried. Through my photographic journey I had learned that I should always arrive with no expectations, except the hope to leave with only good memories.

Jens von Krogh

The Bahá’í temple as a "silent teacher

"The influence that this Mother Temple of the whole Pacific area will exert when constructed, is incalculable and mysterious. The beloved Master told the American friends that their Temple would be the greatest silent teacher, and there is no doubt that this one building has exerted a profound influence on the spread of the Faith, not only in the United States and the Western Hemisphere, but throughout the world." (Letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, to Australia and New Zealand).

About the author/photographer

Jens von Krogh is a photographer, musician and multi-media-talent presently pioneering in the Faeroe Islands with his wife, Elibel. His visits to the temples took five years, alternating between traveling, working and studying. This undertaking, which he called ‘the Åse Project’ was made in honour of his mother, and was completed in January 1995.

Though Jens von Krogh probably is the first to have recorded photographs of all the Temples he is not the only one. Fransisco Gonzales from Spain finished his travels to all the Temples some years later, and the best of Gonzales’ photographs are available from the World Centre.

To see the photographs in this article and more, in colour, visit the Website at: www//cereus.nu For a brochure showing the photographs available write to: Jens von Krogh, 650 Toftir, The Faeroe Islands, via Denmark e-mail: cereus@online.no