About the Museum
By the summer of 1973, the small group of devotees chosen by Srila Prabhupada to pioneer the diorama project had arrived in India.
After fifteen months of painstaking training in India, the small troupe of artists returned to ISKCON’s Western World Headquarters in Los Angeles to take up the next phase of the project. “Before we constructed the present exhibit, Baradraja explains, “We presented the whole idea to Srila Prabhupada, with models of all the dioramas. We marked off a corridor in the exhibit hall and set up models of the proposed dioramas all along the way. Srila Prabhupada toured the whole display and approved all of our proposed exhibits. ‘Very good,’ he said, ‘this is buddhi-yoga; you are utilizing your intelligence to preach Krishna consciousness.’
When His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder Acarya of ISKCON, The International Society for Krishna Consciousness, came to America in 1965, he brought with him his spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura’s, dream of an American theistic exhibition. He had planted the inspirational seed for the Bhagavad-gita Museum in India in the mid- Nineteen Thirties. It was then that he developed an impressive diorama exhibit to present the philosophy of Krishna consciousness clearly and convincingly. That original theistic exhibition, consisting of dozens of dioramas, still draws hundreds of thousands of viewers on its annual to India. To fulfill his own dream, Srila Prabhupada asked some of his own disciples to go to India and learn the art of making “dolls”, the figures displayed in a diorama.
The artists made the dolls in the Museum, using methods essentially the same as those used for thousands of years in India. The basic materials- bamboo, rice straw, various clays, and rice husk- are the same, as are the processes of finishing, painting, and dressing the dolls. But in addition, taking the best from the West, the original museum electronics engineer, Ameyatma dasa, especially designed a computer that synchronized the entire multimedia exhibition— lighting, sound, slide projectors, and special visual and mechanical effects. At the Museum’s grand opening in 1977 Ameyatma said, “We built our own computer because we just couldn’t find anything on the market that could handle such sophisticated programming.”
Mission Statement
Visitor Info
Address:
3764 Watseka Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90034
3764 Watseka Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90034
Visiting Hours:
Every day 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Closed on Tuesdays
Every day 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Closed on Tuesdays
Admission: $10.00
Contact:
(310) 845-9333
info@bgmuseum.com
(310) 845-9333
info@bgmuseum.com