Druk White Lotus School, Rancho and the Dragon Garden: Pt6 of Buddhism & Gardens

Rancho's School is getting a Dragon Garden -the DWLS campus was used as a set in the 3 Idiots - a Bollywood film starring Aamir Khan. A Buddhist-inspired garden and landscape is being developed in Ladakh. The Dragon Garden is being made for the Druk White Lotus School DWLS, under the patronage of the Dalai Lama, with funding from a UK Charity (DPKES) with support from individuals and charitable trusts, including environmental trusts and Buddhist charities. The sustainable landscape design is by landscape architects from the University of Greenwich in London. This video explains the landscape design.The Druk White Lotus School - is being built in Ladakh under the patronage of the Gyalwang Drupka. He is the spiritual leader of a Buddhist lineage and his request to the architects, Arup Associates, was to base the layout of the school on a Mandala. It is a symbol which represents many aspects of Buddhism. Giuseppe Tucci, a scholar of Tibetan Buddhism, wrote that a mandala is, 'above all, a map of the cosmos' It represents 'the whole universe in its essential plan.' As such, a mandala is an aid to thinking, about the patterns of human life, about the laws of nature and about the 'hidden order' of the cosmos. Broadly interpreted, a mandala is therefore a wonderful basis for the design of a school.In the Vajrayana Buddhism of Ladakh and Tibet, landscapes painted on thangkas help explain the world. So do schools. But the Druk School is secular and operates within the Indian school system. This makes it a particularly good place to explore and develop ideas connected with: Green Buddhism and Environmental Buddhism. Ladakh is on the Indian side of the border with Tibet and has close links with Tibetan culture. Temperatures range from minus 35 degrees centigrade in winter to plus 35 degrees in summer. Rivers bring water from the mountains to the valleys. Where they flow the vegetation is lush. Elsewhere, the land is arid - but some desert plants can grow in the dry sands and screes washed down from the mountains.The landscape design for the Druk School is conceived as a garden mandala within a landscape mandala. Its components will be:-A White Lotus Court at the heart of the school A Garden Mandala -- in which the school community can grow as a place to develop Wisdom, Virtue and Concentration - in Sanskrit, and in Buddhism, their names are prajna, sila and samadhi. The campus includes school buildings, designed by Arup Associates, and a garden designed by the landscape architecture department at the University of Greenwich in London. The Stupas and Stupa Fields - which commemorate the teaching of the Buddha and the lives of his followers.The Gompas, which are monasteries. Around Shey, they are built on rocky crags between the valley floor and the high mountains.The Indus Valley has an amazing geological history. Two hundred and fifty million years ago, the Indian tectonic plate was on the south shore of Tethys Ocean. It then broke away and spent 50 million years crossing what is now the Indian Ocean. Then it pushed on -into Asia. So the land on which the school now stands was once on the north coast of the Tethys Ocean. Today, it is fifteen hundred kilometres from the Indian Ocean.Looking south from the Indus, you see the Zanskar Range of mountains. Its rocks are made of sandstone, which was once the floor of the Tethys Ocean. Looking north from the Indus, you see the Ladakh Range. Its rocks are granite, which poured from the earth's molten core as India forced its way into Asia. This extraordinary landscape context, can provide the Druk School with a growing landscape to inspire the body, the mind and the eye.In making a garden within this landscape, the design team draws inspiration from the emblem of the Drukpa Lineage. Drukpa means 'Dragon' -- and the emblem shows two dragons protecting a Dharma Wheel, a Lotus and a Treratna. This encouraged the team to associate the greening of the campus with four dragons: a Dragon of the Mountains - which stores water in its snowfields. a Dragon of the Rivers -- which transports water to the Druk campus, helped by an underground river, boreholes and a drip irrigation system. a Dragon of the Deserts - which provides the sand and silt to make a fertile soil and a Green Dragon which lives in the Valleys - and will provide plants - to shade the school and supply it with fruit, flowers and animal life. The school is being helped by human volunteers: school children, professional staff and donors. The construction is funded entirely by charitable gifts. If you would like to help, please email [email protected]. There is much to be done. The remainder of this video will show the plans - for making a Dragon Garden in Shey. It will include a Zen Garden in the sense of using Zen principles and will not have a Buddha statue or Buddhist ornaments. Further information on Buddha and Buddhist gardens: http://www.gardenvisit.com/garden/dra...