A garden specifically designed to draw the mind and heart UP...
A garden which serves the natural order in an ancient and sacred forest...
A garden designed to enhance the spiritual journey and the practice of meditation...
Wat Tam Pha Phlong in Chiang Dao, Northern Thailand, is an unbelievable place to experience. Since 1967 a community of monks has resided at Tam Pha Phlong, set into protected sub-tropical forest lands in the Doi Luang State Forest, in the very north-west of Thailand, just a few hours from the Burmese border. The monks live simply and their very presence helps deter the practice of hunting in the mountains around, which are home to wild elephants, monkeys, rare snakes, the few remaining wild tigers and many other protected species. Their silent existence here speaks volumes, as does the garden they have created. The monks are also actively involved in fire prevention and control during the dry season.
The garden is focused around the JOURNEY.... the STEPS. One climbs steeply. And the garden leads UP to the cave temple above.
How many steps? 510 steps. Exactly. Numerologically significant, like all things in the Brahmin-Hindu version of Theravada Buddhism which prevails in Thailand.
Where do the steps lead? To a Cave Temple for meditation.
Notice how the eye is drawn UP to the LIGHT - the empty openness behind the images?
The garden is fascinating to look at, since it's boundaries with the natural forest are blurred... no edges, no fences, and the plantings are predominantly cooling greens.
The SCALE of those Elephant Ears (Colocasia esculenta - a cousin of the arum lily) is hard to convey - the leaves are easily over a meter wide and as big as an umbrella.
The colours are mostly muted and subtle... and the flowers shown in isolation to highlight their individual beauty... surrounded by calming, quiet greens of every tone.
When there is a bright pop of colour, it's generally small... designed to make one pause and ponder....
I loved these tiny prik-ii-nu (deathly hot tiny Thai chilis) hidden in the undergrowth...
The ripe chili not more than 1cm in size. Judging by the flowers, it's pretty happy in this mixed, muted, forest garden.
What I loved is that so many of the plants are NOT about flowers or growing food (which so many westerners instantly - and only - equate with gardening) but were about the shape and subtlety of things like leaf design. This one is new to me, and I still have yet to make time to identify it, but isn't it GORGEOUS?
Bromeliads were silently teaching about death at the center of life and new growth...
And there were some joyful surprises shyly hiding, if one took the time to look...
Gardens are such a unique part of every Buddhist temple, and it was such a QUIET JOY to soak in this under-stated, contemplative forest garden.
I love knowing that the edges of the garden blur into the forest, which the monks also actively conserve and protect.
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