For its Fall 2004 programming the curators at the Iran’s Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art sought to reassess one of the world’s most ancient conceptions of Paradise. They brought together several Iranian Contemporary artists to deconstruct this archetypal idea because Iran actually invented it. In its past glory days when it was known as Persia, Iran exported this notion of tranquility and perfection to front lawns and backyards around the world. It created a living work of art that every culture could possess if they were willing to put up with the weekly maintenance. If you are searching for this Paradise than look no further than the closest Persian Garden. That's the consensus of the United Nations’ educational, scientific and cultural emphasis arm. According to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites, five of the most historically significant places to visit in the world are technically Persian Gardens. These include the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, Humayun's Tomb in New Delhi, India, Shalimar Gardens in Lahore, Pakistan and in Generalife, Granada, Spain. The fifth name on this list is actually named "The Persian Gardens" and is located in Iran. These Persian Gardens are not one site but actually nine diverse sites spread all over the nation of Iran. They were built by various rulers in diverse empires at sundry points throughout the ages. Their fame led to the international esteem of the horticultural art form. They include the Pasargad Persian Garden at Pasargadae, Iran, Chehel Sotoun in Isfahan,Iran, Fin Garden, Kashan, Iran, Eram Garden in Shiraz, Iran, Shazdeh Garden in Mahan, Kerman, Iran, Dolatabad Garden in Yazd, Iran, Abbasabad Garden in Abbasabad, Mazandaran, Iran, Akbarieh Garden in South Khorasan Province, Iran and Pahlevanpour Garden in Mehriz, Iran. The reason that Persian gardens are the picture of Paradise for so many is because the concept of Paradise (even the word itself) comes from the tradition of the Persian garden. This specific approach to farming for aesthetic pleasure was invented by the Persians during the Achaemenid Dynasty. They called it paridaida in Old Persian and paridaiza inMedian (the probable language of the Three Wise Men of the Gospels) and it meant “walled around” as in a walled garden. The Persians appreciated the beauty of a garden as an artistic medium due to its appropriation of raw creation and using it for further creative means. This being the case, the four design elements of a Persian garden are four of the foundational elements of Nature: Water, Sky, Earth and Plants. The contemporary world is not alone in its admiration of Persian Gardens. Several writers of the Scriptures found them to be the definition of Paradise. When the ancient Israelites were allowed to return home to Palestine from captivity (by the Persian king Cyrus the Great), they took this concept of Paradise with them. Many Jews had been scribes, advisors and government officials in Persia and had witnessed firsthand the sublime appeal of their gardens. So when they returned to their own homeland and traditions they brought with them a Persian perspective of perfection. These ideas would continue to be woven into the fabric of the Jewish consciousness throughout the following centuries. So much so that when they would read the earlier biblical account of the Garden of Eden they imagined it in a Paradise. When they read about God holding court as a king, they pictured him ruling from a Paradise. This practice lingered on until the lives of the New Testament preachers and writers. When they wrote about the Creation and Fall narrative of the Garden of Eden or discussed the Kingdom of God they did so with this new Persian verbiage. They dreamed of Paradise. They knew that the Paradise that their ancestors viewed in Persia was just a foretaste of the true space of enclosed peace, beauty and tranquility that God promised. We can even smell the scent of it lingering in the background of the story of Jesus' temptation in Mark 1:10-15. If we look at these verses in their full context we will realize that the story occurs in a retake on the Creation and Fall Narratives. It is not a Creation Story but rather the story of the Re-Creation. As the Apostle Paul would later explain, Christ was the New Adam. In this Gospel story Jesus personally engages the ancient garden story. He uses the four elements of Water, Sky, Earth and Plants in the pursuit to reconstruct Paradise. The beauty of salvation is that Christ artistically takes raw creation and uses it for further re-creative means. The Gospel reveals the Paradise of the walled garden of God’s grace.
Water & Sky
Chehel Sotoun, Isfahan,Iran
And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove.Then a voice came from heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
The beginning considerations for a proper Persian Garden incorporate both Sky and Water. The nurturing ingredient of sunlight must be coupled with a sustainable source of hydration. That being the case, the centerpiece of a Persian Garden is always a pool, fountain or some other type of water reservoir. Since it is placed in the aesthetic center it also doubles as a compositional anchor. Without these two elements a Persian paradise cannot be formed.In Genesis, Moses tells us, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." In constructing Paradise in Eden, the Hebrew God began with similar principals as the Persians. In the pre-Edenic phase of Creation God’s Spirit loomed over the abyss. Within the Essence of the Creator their lay not only a desire to create but a longing to create that which is “good.” In the beginning of the Gospels the writer of Mark depicts the New Creation’s genesis emerging from the water. This New Creation was a rebirth of the Old Creation. It arose from the Jordan River and met with God’s Spirit as it descended from the Heavens. The Spirit of God no longer hovered above humanity’s haven but penetrated the populace through the Person of Christ Jesus. And just as in the book of Moses, there spoke a voice from Heaven. Once again it found pleasure and goodness. It is the same goodness that we find in Jesus, theparadisiacaldwelling place of Divinity.
Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness.And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him.
The next foundational element to constructing a Persian Garden is earth. At its heart the garden is an architectural enterprise. Most other engineering feats toil in the earth to remove it and replace it with a foundation of stone, steel or wood. The horticultural architecture of gardening tills the earth to use it as a building material. It is an artistic medium unlike any other for it does only give form (as in earthenware ceramics) but in gardening it gives life. Earth not only gives stability to gardening’s foundation but it as soil it transfers nutrients to every stem that arises like a skyscraper from its substructure. In the Creation Narrative we are told the dust of the earth was also the source material for the creation of Mankind. Moses wrote, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.” We know from personal observations that when men die they eventually return to being dust and future generations of gardeners create beautiful Persian Gardens from the ashes of those who gardened before them. It is what we call the circle of life and it’s a beautiful thing. Yet in the story that teaches us about the beginning of the circle of life we also learn about the source of the circle of death. The ancestral inhabitants of Eden (a gardener named Adam and his wife Eve) succumb to the wiles of Satan. Due to their submission to temptation God exiles them from His Paradise. They no longer have access to the enclosed garden, the glorious Tree of Life carefully planted in the middle or its fragrant fruit of eternal life. Access to this Paradise is guarded by an angel (the messenger of God). Their punishment was passed along to their children and the wild beasts that they once were called to care for. The Gospel of Mark picks up on the imagery of the Creation and Fall narrative and recognizes when it reappears in Jesus’ own temptation. For as the New Adam he was responsible for ushering in the age of a New Earth (and a New Heaven). All of the old things were to pass away. This New Earth would be forged from the trials and tribulations of a man that was the offspring of the original man that was formed from the dust earth. Christ was the beginning of the new humanity. When Christ reversed the curse of Adam by resisting Satan’s temptation he rewrote the fate of Mankind. Christ created a new humanity that is not driven by its own sinful urges to capture God’s authority but rather a humanity that is driven by the Holy Spirit to capture God’s heart through humility and submission. When Christ created a new narrative for Mankind he also determined a new destiny for all of Creation. Christ was in the wilderness with the wild beasts and prefigured the day when all of God’s creation can sit together in the peace of God’s original intention. As the prophet Isaiah testified “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” The promise of God is the promise of peace between all. We even see that after conquering the temptation of sin, the Angels (that once were used to guard Mankind away from the fruit of eternal life) come and serve Christ (the bread of Life). They do this as always in their role as he messengers of God. The message of God is that because of Jesus there is once again peace in Paradise.
Plants
Dolat Abad Garden, Yazd, Iran
Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
The final necessary ingredient to a Persian Garden is plant life. Plants are what keep a lush Persian Garden from devolving into a Japanese rock garden.Unlike their Zen counterparts Persian Gardens are not just a place for meditation and reflection but rather for growth. That is component that plant life brings to a garden. The other elements may nurture and sustain life through air, sunlight, water and the nutrients of soil, but plants are the actual life itself. Plants are the manifestation of the gardener’s intention. A gardener orchestrates all of the architectural details of a garden so that it will facilitate the creation of life. The whole of Scripture after the Creation and Fall narratives of Genesis are the story of life without Life. The Bible discusses Sin so much because documenting its various manifestations is a means of illustration the absence of God’s Spirit. The implantation of God’s Spirit into the life of Man is the change agent that creates life in its fullest form. It is Eternal Life. It is life-giving life. It is a communion with the Creator to create a garden. That is what Christ’s Kingdom is. That is what the Gospel announces. It is an appeal to turn away (or repent) from anything that hinders you finding the fullness of life in God. It is an invitation to believe that you were created to help create more beauty, grace and love. It is an chance to grow. In Adam, Mankind was created to be gardeners. God invites you to share in the labor of Paradise.
All of the great Persian Gardens of the world can trace their creative lineage to the legendary gardens once built by Cyrus the Great at Pasargadae. Yet a modern day visitor to this site would discover
that it is
presently a garden in name only. It is a barren wasteland that hoses both the
tomb of Cyrus the Great and the aspirations of bygone gardeners. It once
flourished with trees, flowers and grasses, neatly designed into geometric
excellence. However now what once was a garden has now become a wilderness. Interestingly enough the Old Testament and the parables of Jesus
are filled with images of gardens in disarray. We are told of vineyards that no
longer produce, vinedressers that rebel against the landlord and gardens whose
tower and walls have been broken down and trampled asunder. This would be
anathema to the aesthetics of the Persian Garden designers. The Paradise of a
garden is founded on the principal of protective seclusion. The intimate
privacy of a walled garden is the source of its strength in fighting off
erosion and other foes hat would consume the fruit of the gardener’s
horticultural toil. After his baptism Jesus found himself in a literal and
theological wilderness. It was the same wilderness that Israel continually
found itself in. It is the same wilderness that we find ourselves in. It is the
same wilderness that all of Creation has found itself in since the Fall. Like Pasargadaeit was a wilderness that ended with only a King's tomb. But unlike Cyrus the Great, Christ Jesus was a king who did not stay in his tomb. When Jesus looked around that wilderness he didn’t get lost in the despair of
the past but pondered the destiny that would unfold with the promise of the
present. Jesus dug his nail pierced hands deep in the earth and rediscovered the foundation that the Creator of
this garden had laid. He raised its tower once again and gathered the stones
together to rebuild its gate. Jesus dug the trenches that would once again flow
with the River of Life. Jesus delved his reach below the soil of sin to unearth a recreated man and a woman fashioned in his own image. Jesus rebuilt God’s Paradise in
his own sweat, his own tears and through his own blood.
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