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The Tara Garden

Choje Akong Tulku Rinpche's original monastery, Drolma Lhakang, was strongly connected with Tara. Tara's influence has been recognized historically in European culture and particularly in the Irish Gaelic tradition.  Drolma ( Tibetan for liberating mother) is one of the principal Tibetan names for Tara. Akong Rinpoche's monastery near Chamdo is called Drolma Lhakang, (The Holy place of Tara) because 21 different emanations of Tara appeared spontaneously in the rocks around the monastery. Drolma Lhakang is dedicated to the constant practice of prayers invoking Tara Drolma's healing energy and her protection for all beings and the planet as a whole. In Tibet, Tara is seen to be a female manifestation of the Buddha's Enlightened mind and energy and to have the complementary female power of the Bodhisattva of Limitless Love and Compassion, Chenrezig.

The Tara Healing Garden is dedicated to the 21 emanations of Tara and will preserve and propagate medicinal herbs native to Tibet that can be cultivated in the climate of the Scottish Borders. Each of the 21 emanations of Tara has the power and the qualities to overcome 21 different kinds of physical and mental disease. Therefore 21 different herbs connected with these different aspects will be planted in separate petal shaped beds around the central statue of Medicine Tara. This statue was consecrated at 7 o'clock in the morning on the seventh day of the seventh month of 2007.

The completed garden will be 40 yards in diameter and will be designed as a twenty one petalled lotus, each petal consisting of a raised bed built in stone with broad paths radiating from the central statue in each of the four directions. Each lotus petal will be planted with medicinal herbs whose colour corresponds to the mandala of Green Tara and the remaining meadow planted with trees, shrubs and an orchard of native fruit trees.

Through the essential power of these plants, combined with the power of prayers to Tara, medicines will be prepared that will be specific for healing these 21 different conditions.

The Herbarium

A Place for Preparation, Processing and Studying Herbs and Herbal Medicine.

The herbarium is now nearing completion. This green oak post and beam building insulated with wool and roofed in natural slate has been supported by donations and voluntary building work by the Garden Project team.

The ground floor will be for general use with tables, workbenches and a fitted kitchen area for the production of chutneys, oils etc.  It will also provide storage and house the garden shop where herbal products can be displayed as well as garden produce. The first floor will be primarily dedicated to herbal processing and production of herbal remedies. Here there will be worktops, storage space, a library and office and facilities for labeling and folders with instructions and contact details. Here herbs will be dried and made into medicines under the supervision of Dr Dhonden a fully qualified Tibetan physician trained in the Dalai Lama's Medical College in Dharamsala.

The Samye Ling Garden Project already leads courses in SVQ production Horticulture levels 2 and 3 as well as weekend workshops and there are  plans for Courses in herbal medicine and the preparation of teas, ointments and other specifics in both  the European and the Tibetan traditions. 

The European herb garden now occupies 20% of the total vegetable garden and provides good annual crops of mints, marjoram, lemon balm, sage, thyme, dill, coriander, vervain, elecampane, valerian, sweet cicely, lavender, borage, St John's wort, yarrow, comfrey, chives, chamomile and calendula. Basil and parsley are grown in the greenhouses.

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