In 1973, A.C. Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Prabhupāda, founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), arranged for several of his disciples to go to Māyāpura, West Bengal, to study the traditional art of putul (unbaked clay figures). These unfired clay figures are composed of raw materials gathered from the riverbank of the Ganges, traditionally created for holiday festival worship and then submerged back into the Ganges at the end of the season. Inspired by his guru, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, who conceived of the theistic exhibition by using putul figures to depict the pastimes and teachings of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Prabhupāda envisioned diorama exhibitions as a staple in ISKCON.

“I want very extensive doll exhibits in every center. My guru maharaj used to spend lots of money on doll exhibitions on Srimad-Bhagavatam. So I am sure that if we make doll exhibitions very prominent many tourists and visitors will throng in our temples.” -Letter to Jayatīrtha, September 14, 1974 After a year of training, the team returned to the West and established the First American Theistic Exhibition (F.A.T.E.) in the ISKCON Los Angeles “New Dvārakā Dhāma” community. The exhibition officially opened for the Janmāṣṭamī festival in 1977. F.A.T.E., now the Diorama-museum of Bhagavad-gītā, consists of eleven diorama exhibitions that survey the spiritual teachings spoken by Kṛṣṇa to Arjuna in the Gītā.

Thereafter, F.A.T.E. studios created a second diorama museum for the Fisher Mansion in Detroit. Additionally, the team, which had expanded exponentially to include sculptors, painters, costume designers, mold makers, electricians, and architects, produced numerous projects, including sculpting the Pañca-tattva deities for the Laguna Beach and Hawaii temples, and the Kṛṣṇa-Kāliya deity for the Fiji temple.