Initiated 2019 · In design
The Mother Earth Monument
Every one of us has drawn joy and life from this planet for millennia. There is no monument anywhere that says so. This is our attempt to correct that.
Alongside the monument, SCOPE Foundation is building the Mother Earth Center for the Science of Spirituality — Bhoodevi Aadyathmika Kendra. The activities held there are non-ritualistic practices intended to create a sense of unity and belonging to Mother Earth, open to anyone who comes.
Conceptual study · 12°41′37″N 76°53′29″E
The land
Thirteen acres, eight miles from Mandya
The site sits between Bengaluru and Mysore in southern Karnataka, on open red-soil land ringed by granite hillocks — the same stone the monument will be built from.
It is deliberately not in a city. Reaching it should feel like a small journey, the way approaching something old always has.
The structure
11,000 square feet of local granite
The main monument is built from well-designed granite quarried in the area. At its centre, the presiding form: Mother Earth herself, the planet, carved from solid granite.
Coloured granite is inlaid across her surface to match the oceans, forests and deserts as they appear from space — the only portrait of her that has ever been true.
The carvings
Sixty-four lives, cut into the walls
Each of the four walls carries eight relief carvings on the outside and eight within: humanitarians from around the world who gave their lives for the benefit of others, without regard to nation or belief.
Stone is a slow medium. It is the only one that keeps a promise for a thousand years.