Celebrating Christmas in a grand style, internationally acclaimed sand artist, Sudarsan Pattnaik, has erected a 35 feet high sand sculpture of Jesus Christ in the scenic beach of Puri, Odisha, India expecting to set a new world record.
The 75 feet wide sculpture of Jesus was made in just 3 days before the Christmas Eve using at least 1000 tons of sand in. Pattnaik was assisted by 25 students in his project.
Pattnaik, who holds seven other records in sand art, said that he had approached the Limca Book of Records this time to break his own record of making 22 feet tall sculpture of Jesus in 2011.
“This is our attempt for creating the eighth world record and hence we requested Limca Book of Records to make a note of it. The existing record was of a 22 feet tall Jesus, but we crafted a 35 feet high sand Jesus, this time. Tourists can see the world’s biggest sand Jesus here at Puri Beach during Christmas,” he said.
Meanwhile, tourists from across the world thronged the beach for a glimpse of the marvelous structure.
A European tourist, Annie James, said that she had seen nothing of this sort ever before, anywhere in the world.
“I have never seen anything like it in my life, anywhere in the world. It’s really special. Puri has a tremendous piece of art here in the beach and I understand that it is something for which Puri is very famous for. So it’s wonderful to see this, a tremendous piece of sculpture here in the beach during Christmas holiday celebrations,” she said.
This was Pattnaik’s gift to the tourists visiting Puri during the ongoing Christmas holidays.
Many westerners and people from the hills and northern India visit Puri at this time of the year as temperatures remain pleasant here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudarshan_Pattnaik
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Christ
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puri
http://www.limcabookofrecords.in/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puri_Beach
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas