AT A GLANCE
Why go?
On a hillside at Tiapapata, about a 15-minute drive from Apia, stands the Bahá'í House of Worship of Samoa — one of only eight continental Bahá'í temples in the world and the only one in the Pacific islands, earning it the name the "Mother Temple of the Pacific." Its gleaming nine-sided form, crowned by a white dome, rises out of roughly 20 acres of flower gardens and is open to visitors of every faith.↗↗↗
Dedicated in 1984, the temple was designed by the Iranian-born architect Hossein Amanat, whose form draws on the curves of the traditional Samoan fale while symbolising the oneness of humanity through nine identical entrances. Inside, a main hall seats 500 people, ringed by a cantilevered mezzanine for another 200, beneath a 28-metre dome inset with mirrored glass.↗↗↗
A rare temple, made for the Pacific
The idea of a Bahá'í House of Worship for Samoa was announced in 1974, and in November 1975 the cool heights of Tiapapata, inland from Apia on the island of Upolu, were chosen as the site. The cornerstone was laid on 27 January 1979 by Samoa's Head of State, Susuga Malietoa Tanumafili II, alongside the Bahá'í dignitary Amatu'l-Bahá Rúhíyyih Khánum, who brought dust from the Shrine of the Báb in Israel. Construction began in the early 1980s, with building materials flowing in from around the world, and the temple was officially opened on 1 September 1984.