Architecture of Buddhist World: The Golden Land – Book Review & News Items
2015
March
“Vikram Lall’s, The Golden Lands is one such brilliant endeavour. A serious arrangement of valuable documentary material structured in a way that gives equal weight to text, drawing and photograph. This book is as detailed and thorough as the various temples, stupa’s and monastic precincts its covers. Lall is one of the rare architects with the gift of documentation, not in the dry tone of a researcher spewing collected material, but a master-chef who knows his ingredients and is as fascinated with their combination as the taste of his sumptuous meal.”
Borobudur Stonework, The Golden Land by Vikram Lall
Outlook, Delhi, March 9, 2015, Gautam Bhatia, Architect & Author, India
February
“Buddhist architecture has rarely been treated as a stand- alone subject, but that gap will soon be filled with a series of six books on such architecture around the world by New Delhi based architect and scholar Lall. This volume and the series it kicks off will be a welcome and useful resource on Buddhist architecture for audience from students and scholars to the casual reader.”
The Golden Land: Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand & Vietnam
Library Journal, New York, February 15, 2015, Amy Trendler, Ball State Univ. Libs, Muncie, IN
January – February
“Vikram Lall, author of this volume and the future ones in the series, is highly qualified to write on the subject. As an architect, scholar and lecturer he bring longevity, knowledge and experience to his writing. Also, having visited most of the sites in their original setting, his first hand observations of the architecture in its cultural environment add depth to the text. The author’s broad background in South Asian culture is evient in numerous comparative references to Indian examples and is a valuable aspect of the Book.”
The Golden Lands
Art of Asia, Arts of Asia Publication Ltd., Hongkong, Jan-Feb 2015, Dawn F. Rooney, Author & Art Historien.
January
“Buddhist studies on painting and sculpture abound, but books dedicated to the Buddhist architecture of southeast Asia are harder to find. Luckily, this volume is the first in a series of six to comprehensively explore Buddhist architecture as a product of culture. Architect and scholar Vikram Lall uses a new multidisciplinary approach to focus on the architectural forms and spaces associated with the faith of Buddhism during its 2,500- year history. One of the most valuable assets to this well-planned tome is the images. Architectural plans, drawings, illustrated 3-D architectural models, cross-sections, map and lush photography complement the scholarly text.”
The Golden Land: Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand & Vietnam by Vikram Lall
Art History Librarian, January 2015, Kim Collins, Art History Librarian, Emory University, USA
2014
November
“A Lavish book digs deep into architecture influenced by religion. Vikram Lall visited and studied every site and building that is featured in his in debth book on Buddhist influenced architecture in this region, Architecture of Buddhist world. One of the many architectural drawings that provide different perspectives of the photographed buildings and ruins. Each 3D model in the book was painstakingly created by the author’s India based architecture firm, Lall & Associates”
Study of the Sacred
The Star Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, November 2, 2014, Jaydee Lok
November
“Lall has attempted to encapsulate the way in which architecture was implied to manifest Buddhist thoughts and rituals in their diversity and Complexity. Aside from fully discussing the history and characteristics of Buddhist monuments in South – East Asia, most of the structures featured in the Golden Lands are accompanied by computer generated illustrations. Using building information modeling (BIM) processes, Lall has fully and virtually reconstructed each monument in detail. This is extremely impressive, considering that BIM allows architects to create architectural models in multiple dimensions, including the traditional width, height and depth (for an accurate 3D perspective from every angle). This gives future scholars of Buddhist architecture a much more comprehensive understanding of these monuments.
Buddhist Architecture in Focus
The Star Online, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, November 2, 2014
November
“Vikram Lall has written a about his groundbreaking research on Buddhist Architecture. With more than 25 years of experience in architectural practice and consultancy, he is the principal architect and partner of Lall & Associates. The present series of books represents the summation of his twenty five years of intensive research into Buddhist architecture.”
Vikram Lall Publishes a Ground Breaking Book about Buddhist Architecture
Belgian News, November 2014, Number 9, Newsletter of the Embassy of Belgium in New Delhi
October
“Weighing in at nearly 4 ½ pounds, Golden Lands is a hefty book, but don’t let that scare you – it‘s a gentle giant! Vikram Lall’s insights into the religious architecture of Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam are invitingly well written and worth every ounce. Lall Begins his treatment at Southeast Asia’s architectural beginning – as a humble chain of trading posts between India and Southern China in which Buddhism spread and shrines were built as early as the 5th century. It wasn’t long before the stupas got taller, the pagodas got wider, more roofs appeared atop the wats and sprawls of Buddhist monuments blossomed in the deep jungle. Soon, each of the six disparate regions developed its own “architectural vocabulary.”
The Golden Lands
Longitude Books, New York, October 13, 2014
October
“The Golden Lands is the first book in a groundbreaking new series exploring famous temples and sites from the Buddhist world from an architectural point of view.”
The Golden Land by Vikram Lall
Buddhist Art News, India, October 13, 2014
October
“Vikram Lall ia an award winning architect who has designed several landmark buildings, including the Akshardham temple in New Delhi. Here he discusses his recent publication, The Golden Lands, the first book from a new series that delves into the underappreciated world of Buddhist architecture. The book attempts to demonstrate the architectural pattern that emerged in response to the philosophy, practice and ritual of Buddhism.”
Much of the Architectural Heritage of the Buddhist World has lost its Sense of Meaning
Southeast Asia Globe, Southeast Asia, October 13, 2014, David Hutt
October
“Vikram Lall, a practicing architect and teacher in New Delhi, wonders at the mind-boggling diversity of Buddhist buildings. Lall’s visually delightful showcase of Buddhist architecture succeeds in portraying the physical result of the faith’s tolerant, cosmopolitan nature, and the dynamism with which so many cultures have made it their own.”
The Golden Land: Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand & Vietnam by Vikram Lall
The Asian Review of Books, Hongkong, October 10, 2014, Jame Dibiasio
September – October
“Vikram Lall examines buildings not merely in terms of its age and stylistic appearance, like archaeologists and art historians, but as an architectural product answering the logic of construction materials and technology and addressing the functional necessities of its purpose. With abundant analytic drawings followings the norms of architectural practice- he presents new insights to understand Buddhist architecture, thus making a compelling case for an architect to write the history architecture.”
Architecture on the Buddhist Trail
Biblio, Delhi, Sep-Oct 2014, A.G.K Menon, Conservation architect, Scholar, Convenor- INTACH
August
“A detailed text takes readers through the history of Buddhism and cultural influences in Southeast Asia, using many examples in the analysis of architectural construction and design, with interpretation of Buddhist symbolism. Lavishly illustrated with hundreds of new photographs, architectural diagram, and map, it is the summation of over 25 Year’s intensive research into Buddhist architecture by Vikram Lall.”
The Golden Lands
RIBA, Royal Institute of British Architecture, London, August 19, 2014
July
“This book is set to enlighten and inspire readers across the world, Thank to extensive new photography and groundbreaking survey work contributing to architectural diagram about the ancient Buddhist architecture. The Author has spun a well woven journey to depict the Buddhist architecture of Myanmar, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos as it stood since centuries.”
Architecture of the Buddhist World
The Buddhist Channel, Hong Kong, July 11, 2014