On a ridge that forms Aizawl's western boundary, a marble structure rises above the lush green surroundings. Under development for the past two decades, it is spread over 3,025 sq m, has four towers topped with a crown each and four pillars emblazoned with seven Stars of David.
A Christian religious sect calling itself The Holy Church is building here what it calls the 'Solomon's Temple' — a successor to the original Solomon's Temple of Jerusalem mentioned in the Old Testament, believed to have been built by the son of ancient Israel's warrior-king David and destroyed by successive invaders. On the site now stands the Muslim shrine of the Dome of the Rock.
The sect believes Mizoram is the Biblical "city in the East", "the hidden Jerusalem" where, according to prophecy, the resurrected Jesus Christ will dwell before establishing an "eternal kingdom" in present-day Jerusalem.
The Holy Church has also named the immediate vicinity of the Aizawl temple 'Kidron Valley' after the vast plains that lie adjacent to the Old City of Jerusalem in Israel.
A senior state government official, Dr L B Sailo founded The Holy Church sect three decades ago. In 1989, he outlined his religious belief that Mizos are "God's chosen people" in a book titled The Mystery of Elects — drawing this conclusion from historical facts and writings in the Old Testament.
He argued that Mizos, who were mass converted to Christianity by Welsh missionaries in the last decade of the 19th century, were sought out by divinity itself for a purpose.
Two years after the book was published, Dr Sailo says, God appeared before him in a dream and directed him to build a place of worship, even outlining the architectural specifications, including the towers and the pillars, and that the square-shaped temple must have identical sides, each with an entry gate in the middle.
By the time of its expected completion in 2016, exactly 20 years after the foundation stone was laid on Christmas Day in 1996, the temple would have cost US $3 million, most of it generated from donations from members and anyone else willing to make offerings.
An eight-page pamphlet handed out to visitors at the construction site declares 'Solomon's Temple revived! Vision of God's People, Hope of all nations coming up!'. Beneath is the address: 'Kidron Valley, Aizawl, Mizoram: India'.
"Since the Lord God Almighty abandoned the temple in Israel, where is the new site of the temple and the new nation? Almost for 2000 years, believers in Christ have built temples, cathedrals and churches. But not God's temple worth naming as Solomon's Temple. Now God has found a site for his temple again to be called Solomon's temple," the pamphlet declares.
Work on much of the exterior has been completed — the marble was sourced all the way from Rajasthan — with labourers starting on inside furnishing.
However, despite the history it apparently derives from, 'Solomon's Temple' promises to be a modern place of worship: it will have a 300-car basement parking, a hydraulic jack-operated stage that can emerge from under the floor when needed, a centrally air-conditioned main hall with a seating capacity of 3,000, small loud-speakers fitted on every bench, and a rainwaster harvesting mechanism on the roof (which looks like a crucifix when viewed from the top).
In the past few years, the temple has already become a tourist attraction. Caretaker H T Darbuka shows six visitors' books, five of them completely filled, and says that apart from Meghalaya and Manipur, people have been coming from the US, UK, Germany, Portugal, France, several African countries, as well as Singapore, Japan, China, Taiwan, Laos, Cambodia, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Myanmar in Asia.
A retired agriculture officer, Darbuka also underlines that the temple won the 'Green Mizoram' award, with more than a thousand trees having been planted in its compound.
When The Holy Church calls members for voluntary work on holidays, to speed up construction, as many as 700 have been known to turn up.
Standing in the yard, Darbuka glances up at the two white statues of winged angels with trumpets and says, "We don't differentiate on the basis of social standing. So on such days, even government officials take up the spade. No one stands around pointing out things to be done. They do it."