Award
In recognition of his significant sole attempt to create a local Islamic center of learning and building crafts, Sardar Rais Ghazi Mohammad was awarded the Aga Khan Award for Architecture by His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan in 1986 at Morocco. In the words of the jury, "Bhong enshrines and epitomizes the popular taste in Pakistan with all its vigor, pride, tension and sentiment. Its use, and misuse of signs and symbols expresses appropriate growing pains of an architecture in transition." The president, Islamic Republic of Pakistan has posthumously conferred upon Sardar Rais Ghazi Muhammad, SITARA-I-IMTIAZ on March 23, 2004 (Pakistan Day) for his outstanding contribution to the field of Public Service (Bhong Mosque architecture).
Critics, mostly Western, have called it "Arabian Nights à la Hollywood," noting how much it delights the Pakistani, yet bemoaning the fact that such a work will now set an architectural standard. To date, it has been the most controversial of the Aga Khan architecture award winners.
Read more about this topic: Bhong Mosque
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“The award of a pure gold medal for poetry would flatter the recipient unduly: no poem ever attains such carat purity.”
—Robert Graves (1895–1985)