The Los Angeles Wonder Aluminum Rathas!
Jayananda prabhu built the original Los Angeles Rath carts in 1978. They were completed for a fantastic festival that proceeded down the boardwalk and culminated in Venice (Muscle) Beach. By 2003 they required annual repair because the carts were parked along the ocean and deteriorated from the salty moist ocean air which rotted the wood and rusted the steel. The annual maintenance was excessive and the whole process was unsustainable because the landlord of the place where the carts were parked kept raising their fees which had come to $25,000 annually just to store the chariots.
I approached the temple president of LA and suggested we make three new carts out of aluminum that we would fold up and could then be put into a single 53′ tractor trailer where they could be protected and stored in the desert very economically. Fitting all three of the carts into one trailer unit also provides the ability to relocate the carts to a very low-cost parking spot in the California desert and get them away from the corrosive sea air and huge lot rental fees.
Fitting all three of the carts into one trailer unit also provides the ability to relocate the carts to a very low-cost parking spot in the California desert and get them away from the corrosive sea air and huge lot rental fees.
What follows is a video of the new carts that were designed to meet that objective. It is very well done and captures the whole parade. It includes footage that shows the carts coming out of the trailers prior to the parade, and then, at the end of the film, a quick time-lapse of how the carts collapse to about 1/3 of their volume and how all three of the chariots fit back into the trailer is captured at the end of the parade. This very well done video captures the whole parade and includes footage that shows the carts coming out of the trailers prior to the parade, and then a quick time-lapse of how they collapse to about 1/3 of their volume to fit all three of them back into the trailer at the end of the parade shown at the end of the film.
At the time this was filmed in 2010 only two of the carts were assembled. The small Subhadra cart in the middle was designed for the Martin Luther King day parade and has been used for numerous other parades since then. The following year the third cart was built. All three of the carts collapse in all three dimensions which makes it possible for all three carts to fit into a 53-ft trainer. The plans for these aluminum carts are also posted under the Rathayatra section of the Jagannatha.com “Library” tab.
Runtime: 11:25
