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World Peace Through Art And Spirituality By Chantana Jasper, Citylife Chiang Mai, Vol.15 No.3, Mar 2006. She is surrounded by dozens of laughing children and adoring staff members. A couple of dogs fight each other to get closer to her. Vanida Wongsam, more affectionately known as Khun Pa Mam, radiates joy. This is the first glimpse I have of the sculptor and peace activist with the Western name of Venetia Walkey. At the age of 73, she at first appears frail but once she begins talking about her beloved Dhamma Park, she jaunts around the 24-hectare property with a tenacity that has this vibrant woman overtaking her walking stick. Walkey's voice projects genuine passion as she discusses Buddhism and the arts, and I find myself easily lost in her words and the sparkle of her eyes.
Venetia Walkey is the coordinator of the Dhamma Park Foundation, as well as co-director and project manager. However, she identifies herself more simply as a sculptor and peace activist. Recipient of the UN Women's Day Outstanding Women in Buddhism Award, in March 2004, Walkey immediately informs me that "music, dance and art should be incorporated into life."
The artist, born in 1932, studied at Guildford and Medway colleges of art, in the United Kingdom. She says she first discovered Buddhism when she was 28 and living in the UK as a young Navy wife with two sons. Her husband was often away at sea, and it was during these difficult separations that she discovered Buddhism in her heart, even though she had never studied it - and didn't even realise she was practising it.
"It's spirituality that unites us all in a world where, unfortunately, religions tend to divide us."
Walkey was raised as a Christian, but says she had questions that couldn't be answered by the religion. She began following a helpful path, finding a better way of "analysing and working through problems." By practising mindfulness and awareness and seeking wisdom, the artist discovered that, rather than cut off pain, she was learning to open up and deal with it. "I developed positive thinking," she smiles.
Walkey began her art career with a focus on portrait painting and sculpture. She says she felt at home upon her arrival in Thailand in 1970: "I was on a path and couldn't turn back." The artist received a book about Buddhism from an English woman she met, and discovered that this was the path she had been on all along without realising it.
Walkey studied art with Professor Kien Yimsiri, dean of the Faculty of Painting and Sculpture, Silapakorn University, Bangkok. Around the same time, she also studied Buddhism and yoga and was inspired to express different aspects of the Buddhist philosophy in small bronzes of monks and nuns that were "a bit unorthodox". She even taught English at AUA and the British Council to subsidise her art. "I try to communicate humanistic ideas through sculpture," she says.
"Eco-spiritual tourism can inspire us to move towards a more peaceful society."
Walkey set out on a mission to present the importance of the arts in society and during this time met her now-husband Inson Wongsam - a national Thai artist and sculptor as well as president of the Dhamma Park Foundation and co-director of the Dhamma Park - in 1976. Walkey envisioned a 21st century eco-spiritual theme park, with the reflection that "through Buddhist teachings and art, we find a way to communicate to people of all ages, races and religions."
The artist feels that the Dhamma Park connects people to the values of Buddhism and gives them space from the rat race. "I like people to feel they are visiting in a private and personal way, and take away a feeling of peace," says Walkey. "Buddhism is a practical science helping us through our journey of life."
The expansive grounds of the Dhamma Park are beautifully maintained and time seems to have no meaning here. One of the most interesting buildings is a circular mud hut with a beautiful tiled interior that keeps the heat out and provides a haven for meditation. Scattered about the park, Inson Wongsam's sturdy bronze sculptures, flaunt their varied shapes and colours. Children and adults alike can enjoy these works of art, which are open to interpretation - although Walkey is happy to convey the meanings of the more abstruse pieces.
Walkey conducts tours herself, and doesn't lecture visitors on the meaning of the statues, instead asking what you think, and allowing you the time to consider all the possibilities. There are no right or wrong answers here - just ways to open up your mind. In a smaller gallery which houses her collection of bronze sculptures, there is a replica of the entrance gates to the Dhamma Park, which is used to help visitors get a better look at the design. Walkey holds a torch behind the model and says, "At night, light shines through the 'open eye of wisdom'." According to Walkey, "True Dhamma is only found in the heart." Dhamma, or 'truth', is also the name given to the teachings of the Buddha.
The Dhamma Park Foundation is a non-profit organisation and has been an official partner of UNESCO's programme for building Cultures of Peace and Peace Education for the Children of the World since 2000. It has received awards from We the People's Initiative and Pathways to Peace, official Peace Messenger to the UN. The Dhamma Park provides an opportunity for Thai and foreign tourists to experience attractive alternatives to consumerised culture. "People are fed up with materialism, which leaves them unfulfilled," says Walkey. "Buddhism brings happiness."
Walkey maintains that Buddhist teachings apply to all faiths: "It's spirituality that unites us all in a world where, unfortunately, religions tend to divide us." The park is a new concept in eco-spiritual tourism, where the arts, science, nature and humour combine to raise environmental and spiritual awareness and encourage ethical values in society. Unsurprisingly, Walkey is a founding member of the Society for Humour of Peoples International, which seeks to "make a contribution to world peace through the universal language of humour which transcends all boundaries."
A Tibetan Buddhist monk challenged Walkey to represent the 24 links that serve to perpetuate human suffering, from the Buddha's Paticcasamuppada, or Dependent Origination of Suffering. This had never before been done in sculpture, and thus far she has completed 12 of the links. Her collection, The Twelve Links, is a series of humorous, unorthodox modern sculptures that, she says, "leads us from ignorance [of the true nature of reality] and from an unsound basis of morality into the endless round of rebirth and suffering."
"Music, dance and art should be incorporated into life."
The highlight is The Fountain of Wisdom, which empties into a spherical basin representing the Sea of Suffering. The fountain portrays the journey from ignorance to enlightenment. Walkey explains that the Four Principal Virtues are contained within the artwork: 1) loving kindness and deep spiritual friendship; 2) compassion and generosity; 3) sympathetic and spiritual joy - a deep joy that comes in meditation; 4) unshakable patience - when one is freed from all attachments and no longer afraid.
"People are fed-up with materialism, which leaves them unfulfilled."
Everything means something here and you must cross the Bridge of the Noble Eightfold Path for Right Living to reach the gallery where the works are displayed. The bridge tells you symbolically that suffering can be avoided by following the 'eight rightful paths' that the Buddha prescribed. Walkey says the bridge "helps us take a safe direction."
Situated in an orchard of lam yai (longan) and mango trees, the Dhamma Park will be donated to the people of Lamphun when Walkey and her husband pass away. Undaunted by their own mortality, the couple has already constructed their coffins. Walkey shows me hers, which she designed herself. It bears the 'eye of wisdom'. She chuckles and says, "We would have had it light up from the inside for the joy of those viewing it, but the alteration would have weakened the sides."
"I was on a path and couldn't turn back."
Walkey encourages people to visit the Dhamma Park: "Eco-spiritual tourism can inspire us to move towards a more peaceful society." She's constantly seeking new ways, via Buddhism and the arts, to encourage values that are essential to the true well-being of society. As she explains, "We strive to support the community through holistic educational activities and create a better understanding of the universal values and Buddhist ethics as a means of developing 'right' relationships with all living beings and our biosphere to achieve inner peace and world peace." |
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