Asian Gardens: History, Beliefs and Design

by Tom Turner

The gardens made on the fringes of Central Asia in the past 5000 years form a great arc. From the Fertile Crescent, it runs west to Europe and east to China and Japan. Asia's fringe was a zone of a vast landscape in which herders encountered farmers and the design of symbolic gardens began. It appears that as they became settlers, nomads retained a love of mobility, hunting and the wild places in which their ancestors had roamed. Central Asian and Indian ideas influenced the garden culture of China, Japan and South East Asia. In West Asia, Aryan settlers made hunting parks known as paradises. They were walled enclosures stocked with exotic plants and animals. In East Asia, great landscape parks were used for similar purposes and had a sacred role. Across Asia, gardens were influenced by religious and other polytheist, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Daoist, Shinto and Modernist. Early parks and gardens symbolized wild and civilized nature, sometimes conceived as the realms of the Sky God and the Earth Mother. Asian History, Beliefs and Design explores the ways in which designs were guided by beliefs. Tom Turner has been researching and teaching the theory and history of garden design for some forty years. His visits, research, drawings and photographs are brought together in detailed studies of West Asia, South Asia and East Asia. The period covered extends from the earliest gardens to the present. Using maps, diagrams and photographs, the author explores how and why Asian gardens developed their characteristic forms and functions. Treating garden design as a 'word and image' subject, the account is coherent, comparative and readable. Further details of all the gardens are available on the gardenvisit.com website, which the author edits.

Genres: Gardening

340 pages, Hardcover

First published July 15, 2010

About the author

Tom Turner is an English landscape architect and garden historian. He was educated at the Universities of St Andrews and Edinburgh and studied landscape architecture under Frank Clarke.Tom edits the Gardenvisit.com website http://www.gardenvisit.com/.

Reviews

[E A M Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're interested in gardens, history or landscape use this book will give you plenty to think about. It isn't a light study – it's strongly academic – but the writing style is clear and readable and the notes etc are mostly at the end and not cluttering the text.
Because it's divided into sections geographically (West Asia, South Asia, East Asia, all with subdivisions by country) it can be picked up and put down or dipped into.
The inclusion of religious ideas in garden history was new to me and very interesting. The major religions of Islam, Buddhism, Shinto, Hinduism and Daoism are covered, but more minor faiths are not ignored. Most of the points made are illustrated with diagrams and photographs.
The final chapter brings the history up to date and looks forward to possible future developments.

[John Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought the only gardens in Asia were in Japan (and maybe China)! As well as chapters on Japanese and Chinese gardens this book has chapters on gardens all over Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Iran, Egypt etc). A revelation.