Rock Garden Silver Jubilee

Nek Chand worked under cover of darkness for eighteen years, stealing away at the end of his working day as a roads inspector to his secret place - a clearing in the jungle. It was there that he created the legions of sculpted men and women, imaginary creatures, bears and monkeys, that would compose his magnificent 'Rock Garden'.

Nek Chand, a humble man, turned his dream into reality through solitary determination. He scavenged discarded urban debris and transported hand-picked stones from nearby hills on his bicycle, in order to construct the characters that inhabit his realised dream of a kingdom of gods and goddesses. He carried water in bamboo containers so that his garden would be lush with plants. And he stood up to the city1s bureaucracy when it learned of his clandestine plan that violated local construction regulations and Le Corbusier1s master-plan for India1s new city of Chandigarh.

While city officials were not always enthusiastic about Chand's undertaking, today they celebrate it. It was in 1976, when Nek Chand was 52 years old, after long years of quiet work and struggle, that the Garden was formally opened to the public. And now, the city of Chandigarh has commemorated the twenty-fifth anniversary of the opening with a grand Silver Jubilee celebration. Held from March 2 through 4, 2001, the event was supported by the Society for Maintenance and Development of the Rock Garden, the local charity which, with Government support, administers the Garden and supports its completion. Fifteen delegates from the United Kingdom and the United States representing the UK-based Nek Chand Foundation joined over 15,000 artists and art lovers, architects, engineers, environmentalists, journalists, government officials and townspeople who participated in the three days of festivities honouring the artist and his vision.

The festive celebration included a three-hour parade, musical entertainment, folk dances, camel rides, a snake charmer, workshops, and speeches. The highlight was the opening of the OElaughing glass1 pavilion, an installation of distorting circus mirrors donated by the Nek Chand Foundation.

Later, thousands watched a parade through the city, as a dozen decorated floats carrying cloth figures, Punjabi folk musicians and dancing eunuchs, wound their way through the streets.