Building With Wood; Building With Blocks

For his project, Porter built a wooden Khanda. The detailed artistry of his creation is awesome.

Porter describes his work as follows:

The design as a whole is called the Khanda, and it represents many of Sikhism’s most important beliefs.  The circle part is called the Chakra. It is infinite meaning. It has no beginning or an end, so it symbolizes that your soul will never die. The crossed swords are a reminder that all Sikhs should be ready to defend their religion from nonbelievers and anyone who sins. The double-edged sword is called the Khanda and gives the whole symbol its name. It represents the power of the truth and how it can never hurt you.

The process of building the Khanda was fun but hard. The original plan was to make the Khanda smaller but every time my Dad and I tried the small pieces would snap off. So we ended up upsizing the whole design and cutting it out with the jig-saw at my house. After that, we went to my family’s horse farm and used my Grandpa’s electric sander to smooth down the edges. When we were done with the electric sander my Dad gave me some sandpaper to smooth out the rough edges. When I finally finished sanding the whole Khanda was very smooth and nice to feel.  

Next: I hope you enjoy Carter K.'s masterful reconstruction of the Lotus Temple in India:

Here is a portion of Carter's description of his project:

For my Minecraft building, I designed and constructed the newest temple for the religion of the Baha'i faith. This temple was made on November 13, 1986, and it stands in India. (Mine didn’t and will never do either of those things, but what do you expect?!)

This temple as is custom for the Baha'i religion has nine sides. They believe that the number nine is a sign of completeness as it is the highest one-digit number. That gives the number a special meaning for all Baha’is. The Temple stands at a mountainous 112 feet tall. It has nine pools, nine fountains, nine doors, nine petals, and nine more petals that form into one dome. That one dome represents the unity of all religions. This dome also features a skylight. In this temple, Baha’i will find seats for people to meditate on their thoughts and pray. Baha'i has only three prayers a follower can choose from, but they are required to say one of these prayers every day.