Next Meeting Sunday April 22, 11:15 AM

Docent-led tour of "East of Eden: Gardens in Asian Art"

Exhibit Description
Over time, each culture in Asia developed distinct garden types that expressed specific social, religious, and economic concerns. In the arid landscape of West and South Asia, one of the most common garden plans depended on a series of interconnected pools and axial watercourses. Chinese gardens were often characterized by carefully positioned rocks and pools intended to recreate microcosms of nature at large. In Japan, gardens followed a more naturalistic design and incorporated rolling hills and languid ponds to underline harmony between humans and their surroundings.

The very word "paradise" is derived from the walled orchard gardens and hunting parks of ancient Iran, referred to as pardis. According to written sources, the earliest gardens in China, dating to the Zhou period (circa 1050-256 B.C.E.), consisted of enclosed hunting grounds reserved for the royal elite.

The group size is limited to 15, please RSVP by e-mail (jamie_s_whitacre@yahoo.com) to reserve your place.

Link to the exhibit webpage: http://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/current/EastofEden.htm

Local Event: April 27-28 Middle East Garden Traditions: Unity and Diversity

A symposium cosponsored by the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and Dumbarton Oaks. This Symposium will discuss the long lasting history of interlinked garden traditions in the Middle East, since Roman times, and in the Islamic world up to the present. It will highlight cultural continuities, variations and differences between gardens from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indus plains.

http://www.doaks.org/gal_2007_spring_symposium_synopsis.html