纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 042鸠摩罗笈多王一世金币（1）

Today, I'm in north-west London, in Neasden, walking into what must be one of the most startling buildings in the capital.It's the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, the Neasden Hindu temple,and it's a vast white building, elaborately carved in India by over 1,500 craftsmen¹, and then shipped to England.

今天我正身处伦敦西北的尼斯登，我即将走进的是整个伦敦乃至整个英国都令人惊艳的建筑。它就是印度教神庙—尼斯登庙,这座巨大的白色建筑由开釆自意大利的大理石筑成，在印度由1500多名工匠精心雕琢后，再运到伦敦。

I've taken my shoes off and come inside-into a large hall, sumptuously² decorated with sculptures of the Hindu gods, carved in white Carrara marble.

我把鞋脱下来之后，进入一个装饰华丽的大厅，里面有许多印度神像，用来自卡拉拉的白色大理石雕成。

Images like these, of Shiva, Vishnu and the other Hindu gods, strike us as timeless,but there was one particular moment when this way of seeing the gods began.

我们如今看到这里湿婆、毗湿奴等印度神祇的形象，仿佛亘古以来就是如此，但其实这些形象的形成，在历史上自有其起点。

The visual language of Hinduism, just like Buddhism³ and Christianity, crystallises somewhere around the year 400,

印度教众神祇的形象与基督教和佛教一样，也是在公元四百年左右形成的。

and this exuberant⁴ crowd of deities⁵ in Neasden can be traced back, pretty well directly, to India's great Gupta Empire of around 1,600 years ago.

我们如今在伦敦看到的形象，可追溯到约1600年前印度伟大的笈多王朝。

1 craftsmen   

n. 技工

参考例句：

• rugs handmade by local craftsmen 由当地工艺师手工制作的小地毯
• The craftsmen have ensured faithful reproduction of the original painting. 工匠保证要复制一幅最接近原作的画。

2 sumptuously   

奢侈地，豪华地

参考例句：

• The hall was sumptuously decorated. 大厅装饰得富丽堂皇。
• This government building is sumptuously appointed. 这座政府办公大楼布置得极为豪华。

3 Buddhism   

n.佛教（教义）

参考例句：

• Buddhism was introduced into China about 67 AD.佛教是在公元67年左右传入中国的。
• Many people willingly converted to Buddhism.很多人情愿皈依佛教。

4 exuberant   

adj.充满活力的；（植物）繁茂的

参考例句：

• Hothouse plants do not possess exuberant vitality.在温室里培养出来的东西，不会有强大的生命力。
• All those mother trees in the garden are exuberant.果园里的那些母树都长得十分茂盛。

5 deities   

n.神，女神( deity的名词复数 )；神祗；神灵；神明

参考例句：

• Zeus and Aphrodite were ancient Greek deities. 宙斯和阿佛洛狄是古希腊的神。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Taoist Wang hesitated occasionally about these transactions for fearof offending the deities. 道士也有过犹豫，怕这样会得罪了神。 来自汉英文学 - 现代散文