In recent years, starting around the time of the coronavirus shenanigans and, certainly, in the wake of Oct. 7, 2023, more and more Israelis have been opting to spend whatever precious vacation time they manage to muster in this country. Nailing down flights to foreign climes has become an increasingly complicated and expensive affair, and, with Iranian missiles intermittently raining down on us, actually getting back here from abroad has become a more dubious eventuality.
Naturally, as per the supply-and-demand tenets that rule the capitalist-style marketplace, that means that the prices of domestic breaks have also risen. That and the very reasonably priced admission – NIS 40 for adults and NIS 35 for children, with Yerushalmi resident card-bearing youngsters getting in for free – make the inaugural Lotus and Indian Culture Festival at the Botanical Gardens in Jerusalem an even more attractive proposition.
The event starts this weekend and continues on through the following two weekends (June 25-27, July 3-4, and July 9-11). As the festival moniker suggests, the lineup accommodates numerous aspects of Indian culture with dance, art, clothing, music, guided tours, all- family workshops of various ilks, and the titular flower all featuring in the eclectic program.
Lilies by the dozen
If you have ever visited the Botanical Gardens in the summer, you couldn’t have failed to espy the multitude of lotus flowers bursting out of the rich foliage that floats on the circular pond near the entrance. It is, indeed, a wondrous and spectacular display to behold. Even out of flowering season, the lotus leaves make for alluring viewing and induce a sense of calm as one makes the transition from multilane thoroughfare Herzog Street, with its constant roar of traffic, into the quieter climes proffered by Mother Nature’s arboreal and floral gifts brought to Jerusalem from around the globe.
Of course, global spread of vegetation dotted around the gardens notwithstanding, the accent over the next three weekends is very much on the lotus flower and its millennia-long bond with Indian culture and religion. Botanical Gardens CEO Tom Amit confirms my supposition as to the topical launching pad for the festival. “The Botanical Gardens Lake is very old. But around six years ago, we started to bring in lotus flowers,” he explains. There is, Amit notes, hefty and extensive symbolic baggage behind the floral gem. “The lotus is a sacred and very important flower. It is noted right across the East, in many cultures, at major events, and in legend.”
The cross-cultural range is integral to the thematic core of the urban nature facility Amit has headed for the past decade. “The goal of the Botanical Gardens is to bring vegetation from all around the world. We also wanted to have the lotus flower here,” he notes.
Purists, or folks who know a thing or two about botany and ecology, may consider the enforced relocation of vegetation to be somewhat environmentally unfriendly. Then again, you can’t force nature to flourish where it is not suited, and the proof of the import’s success is, says Amit, there for the visual enjoyment. “We were astounded by the success of our lake. The flower comes out more beautiful than anywhere else.” This, it seems, is not just the stuff of bravado and local pride. “I have seen lots of lakes with lotus flowers, in Thailand and in India, and even in Japan. I have to say that the display we have here is the most beautiful.”
That is down to the rich hues that shimmer in the unforgiving summer sun, hovering delectably above the abundant lily pad substratum floating on the surface of the water. “There is something about the stronger pink color we have here,” Amit adds. “I don’t know why that is. Perhaps that is because some of the leachate [groundwater] that runs off the tarmac of Jerusalem’s roads and eventually drains into our pond has some special constituent and does something good to our vegetation.”
The jury is still out on that, but what is for certain is that visitors to the Botanical Gardens over the next three weekends will have plenty of entertainment, hands-on activities, victuals, and fascinating information to keep them well engaged and with a commensurate return on their – albeit modest – entrance fee.
Spreading the pink word
Amit and his staff have gone for broke for the Indian curtain-raiser – it is hoped the festival will become a regular annual fixture, with the support of the Indian Embassy in Tel Aviv. The program features Indian dance, Bollywood-style group dancing, henna temporary tattoos for kids, an Indian-themed arts and crafts fair, and a stall where patrons can don a sari and other culturally topical apparel. “They can have their picture taken by the pond, with all the lotus flowers in the background,” Amit advises. That sounds like fun, and an alternative take on exotic holiday snaps.
Those looking to induce an even deeper sense of inner tranquility, while flexing their tired muscles and soothing some jangled nerves in the process, can take part in yoga sessions by the waterside. There are guided tours of the gardens, trips around the compound aboard the charming miniature train, with a DJ keeping culturally compatible sounds coming through the strategically placed loudspeakers. You can also get a little in on the festival act by participating in a lotus flower photography contest.
The forthcoming Botanical Gardens bash is hardly the first Indian cultural venture in this country. Over the past two or three decades, venues such as the International Convention Center (Binyenei Ha’uma) and Confederation House in Jerusalem, and the Suzanne Dellal Center and the Einav Center in Tel Aviv have hosted top-quality Indian entertainment fare, with the likes of globally acclaimed percussionist Zakir Hussain and flutist Hariprasad Chaurasia among the artists who made the trek over here.
Amit, naturally, is keen to point out the unique added value of the new festival. “There have been a lot of Indian shows in Israel but our festival focuses on the lotus flower and its tale. That’s my job. My role is to tell the story of the flower. The flower doesn’t have a mouth, so we’ll do that for it.”
Looking to the east
Indeed, it sounds perfectly reasonable for a botanically based public enterprise to turn to floral matters when looking to raise its customer profile and offer the public something a little off the thematic beaten track. The Indian program is not the first time Amit and his team have looked eastward. This last February, matters at the Gardens took a turn toward the Land of the Rising Sun as the cherry blossom trees unfurled their floral finery, and the Sakura Festival spun its magic. “The annual bloom symbolizes the beauty and arrival of spring, but it represents much more. It is a cultural event that reflects renewal and a deep connection to nature, something the Japanese look forward to every year,” went the event backdrop story. “It also expresses a rich Japanese philosophical perspective that embraces aesthetics, culture, and the fleeting nature of life.”
Amit had that line of thinking authenticated by a bunch of men with the requisite credentials. “When there were Japanese carpenters here, who built our Japanese pavilion four years ago, the first thing they did on arrival was take in the appearance of the lotus flowers,” he says. “They were so taken by the flowers. They told me that, in Japan, in order to achieve a state of meditation, one of the things they are told is to imagine the lotus flower. It is so perfect that it facilitates a meditative state of peace and quiet. It is so perfect and beautiful that it quells all the other [bothersome] thoughts we have swirling around in our head.”
That sounds like the ideal antidote to all the post-trauma and anguish we have experienced here for the past, at least, six years, as the pandemic gave way to the horrendous events of Oct. 7, 2023, and their continuing aftermath. Amit says that healing complement is high up on his agenda. “I hear people talking about the curative and calming effect they get from the Gardens. It moves me every time. There are a lot of people working here, for the well-being of this city, with all the tension we live with. These Gardens are 120 dunams of air for everyone.”
Amit anticipates a good across-the-board response from the public to the lotus-centric triptych. He has “previous” to support his optimism. “We bring over 20,000 people to the city, every year, to the Sakura Festival. This year we decided to create a formal framework for our activities around the lotus flower and turn that into a festival. After all, that’s what we are here for – to tell the stories of the flowers and vegetation.”
Local bonding
There are rich seams to be mined. “It is, of course, far better and more interesting when you tie the flower in with the culture behind it. This year we decided to focus on Indian culture,” Amit explains. There were plentiful pickings to be had. “Indian culture is so rich, in its dance, illustrations, the movement. The lotus flower is ubiquitous in Indian thinking.”
Amit felt he was on a winner from the outset. “The Israeli public has a penchant for India,” he says. Young backpackers have been setting off from here, for many a year, almost as soon as they check out of the IDF. Amit says that spending lengthy sojourns in the subcontinent is not the exclusive preserve of the twentysomethings. “I hear of more and more senior citizens who go off for trips in India. And I hear about parents to kids who go to India after the army, who join them there. It has become a trend which I like a lot.” If Amit’s assumption is near the mark, there’s a more than fair chance that some of the aforementioned will make their way over to the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens for the festival.
He says there’s plenty to choose from. “There will be different activities every day. There will be Indian food, and there will be gifts which you can only find in India.” That sounds like it is designed to help boost India’s export figures a mite. That may, indeed, be the case but Amit says the emphasis is very much on bolstering the local scene and economy. “We are working with Israeli suppliers. There are a lot of suppliers here who concentrate largely on produce from India. Some import Indian jewelry. There is a very large market, and they have one shop. I don’t want to import. I want to strengthen the local market.”
That’s a sound bite for sore ears which imbues attendance at the first Lotus and Indian Culture Festival with something of a welcome humanist-patriotic element. “A supplier of Indian jewelry can set up his stall at the festival and can offer his wares to 20,000 people. That is my gift to this city and to this culture.”
Fun for all from here and there
It will, says Amit, be a joyous occasion for all concerned. “The activities [in the festival] are great fun. I am sure people will be drawn to that.”
He also has at least one eye on the future and how the festival might grow in years to come. “I believe that whenever you offer someone an opportunity to get a taste of a different culture, that can lead to them actually going to the country where the culture comes from,” he posits. “I don’t think it’s just a coincidence that the Indian Embassy offered its support for the festival from the get-go. It appreciates that there are a lot of Israelis who are very interested in India and Indian culture, and who go there repeatedly. That, of course, helps the tourism sector in India.”
That bodes well for further editions of the lotus-themed event. Amit has big plans. “It would make me very happy if, next year, Indian tourists come here and come to the Lotus Festival. Let’s hope the security situation works in our favor.” Amen to that.
