Where are we today? Honolulu, Oahu

Part 1

How do you choose which botanical garden to go to in a city full of them?  We ended up at Foster Gardens, a beautiful oasis inside ultra urban Honolulu. The grounds were originally part of an estate owned by the Foster family, who collected plants and landscaped beds, walkways, etc. Now, it all belongs to the city, who has opened it to the public for free.

This is a Bo tree or Bodhi tree.   Buddhists revere it as they believe that the Buddha reached enlightenment while meditating under this kind of tree. This is not a Buddhist garden, but it does have a few elements that reflect the Buddhist community in Honolulu. 

This statue of Buddha is in honor of the many Japanese immigrants in Honolulu.  You probably know that Buddhism is a reform movement of Hinduism, and that Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and certain elements of Sikhism had their origin in the yoga scriptures. Buddhism, like yoga, has as its goal to escape Samsara.  Have you thought about what the term means?  
Samsara in yoga 

Part of a sculpture made of ballast stones. Merchants from other places would use these stones, quarried in Europe and Asia, to balance their ships.  
They would leave the stone here and go home with the equivalent pounds of sandalwood or other cargo.

The conservatory houses a rare corpse plant.  Its current stage of life is the tree form.  Perhaps fortunately for us, this is not the year for the famous bloom, which attracts flies by stinking like rotting flesh. I understand that when the flower does come, people stand in line to smell it.

That is just a small taste of the lovely garden.  Even though we are leaving Honolulu tonight, I will post about Diamond Head tomorrow. 

Love to all!!