The Garden of One Thousand Buddhas, Buddhist garden in Arlee, Montana, United States.
The Garden of One Thousand Buddhas is a Buddhist garden in the Jocko Valley of western Montana with one thousand hand-cast Buddha statues arranged in eight spokes around a central statue of Yum Chenmo. The entire layout forms a circular monument approximately 750 feet across with eight symmetrical concrete spokes, each holding about 125 meditating figures.
The garden opened in 2000 after a Buddhist teacher purchased the land and obtained approval from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. This authorization was essential because the location holds spiritual and cultural meaning for these tribes, making their consent a crucial part of the site's founding.
The garden follows Nyingma School teachings of Tibetan Buddhism, creating a space where visitors can experience the religion's core values through its physical layout. The thousand stupas circling the outer area each hold an image of the deity Tara, making her presence central to how people move through and understand this place.
The garden welcomes visitors daily and you can explore the statues at your own pace or join guided tours during the warmer months. These tours help you understand the meaning behind the layout and the figures scattered across the grounds.
The arrangement of the statues represents the wheel of dharma, a deeply meaningful Buddhist symbol that many visitors overlook when first walking through. The location in the Jocko Valley was chosen thoughtfully to honor the spiritual connection between the Buddhist community and the ancestral lands of the region's tribes.
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