Hangseshwari Temple

A temple in India whose towers could pass for onion domes. At first sight of Hangseshwari temple, the thought flashes: "Wait, is this really India?"

These silhouettes of towers reach into the sky as if conversing with faraway onion domes, like a piece of another continent's architecture that accidentally landed on the soil of Bengal.

The temple was built in the early 19th century by Maharaja Nrisingam Singh Deb and completed under his widow, Rani Shankari, almost 30 years later. The main "trick": 13 towers in the shape of lotus buds. According to the architects' design, they symbolize the energy centers of a human being according to tantric canon. Yet the likeness reads as a dialogue of cultures: an Indian lotus and an onion dome speaking the same language.

Inside, the temple is organized like a model of the human body: each tower is connected with "nadis" (channels through which life energy flows). From the outside, it looks like an architectural bridge between civilizations that never directly interacted.

Getting There: Bansberia, 40 km north of Kolkata, on the bank of the Hooghly River. If you spend more than two days in Kolkata, definitely visit.

Thirteen lotus towers in Bengal