In 1973, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), arranged for several of his disciples to go to Mayapura, West Bengal, to study the traditional art of putul (dollmaking). These unfired clay figures are composed of raw materials gathered from the riverbank of the Ganges, traditionally created for holiday festival worship and then submerged back into the Ganges at the end of the season.
Inspired by his guru, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, who conceived of the theistic exhibition by using putul figures to depict the pastimes and teachings of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Prabhupāda envisioned diorama exhibitions as a staple in ISKCON.
“I want very extensive doll exhibits in every center. My Guru Mahārāja used to spend lots of money on doll exhibitions on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So I am sure that if we make doll exhibitions very prominent, many tourists and visitors will throng in our temples.”
—Letter to Jagadīśa, September 14, 1974
After a year of training, the team returned to the West and established the First American Transcendental Exhibition (F.A.T.E.) in the ISKCON Los Angeles “New Dvārakā Dhāma” community. The exhibition officially opened for the Janmāṣṭamī festival in 1977. F.A.T.E., now the Diorama-museum of Bhagavad-gītā, consists of eleven diorama exhibitions that survey the spiritual teachings spoken by Kṛṣṇa to Arjuna in the Gītā.
Thereafter, F.A.T.E. studios created a second diorama museum for the Fisher Mansion in Detroit. Additionally, the team, which had expanded exponentially to include sculptors, painters, costume designers, mold makers, electricians, and architects, produced numerous projects — including sculpting the Pañca-tattva deities for the Laguna Beach and Hawaii temples, and the Kṛṣṇa-Kāliya deity for the Fiji temple.
Several of the original F.A.T.E. artists have come together to personally oversee and execute the museum’s restoration. Through this campaign, they are restoring and preserving Śrīla Prabhupāda’s vision for spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness through visual storytelling.
The Restoration Project
Since its opening almost 50 years ago, the Diorama-museum of Bhagavad-gītā has undergone several minor restorations to repair figures and update audiovisual components. Recently, the Changing Bodies exhibit suffered critical damage, sparking a grand renovation project to:
Repair dioramas
Repair and update architecture
Revamp audiovisual technology
Reconfigure lighting
Replace outdated electrical components
Secure exhibits in a climate-controlled environment
50th Anniversary
The restoration project seeks a grand reopening in the summer of 2027 to celebrate the museum’s 50th anniversary.
The Diorama-museum of Bhagavad-gītā of the Los Angeles New Dvārakā Dhāma community is the first diorama museum produced by ISKCON. It is the only diorama exhibition personally supervised and directed by Śrīla Prabhupāda, who visited the F.A.T.E. studio and the museum during its development. The museum also contains the first life-size murti of Prabhupāda, now a fixture in every ISKCON temple.
The Diorama-museum of Bhagavad-gītā is the heart of New Dvārakā and sets the gold standard for ISKCON theistic exhibition.
In addition to restoring and upgrading the exhibits, an exhibition catalog is being produced to honor the F.A.T.E. artists and narrate the museum’s unique story within the history of ISKCON’s arts and culture.
The 50th anniversary is both a culmination of restoring the exhibition and preserving its history, and a mark of a new era of community engagement and artistic tradition in ISKCON.
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