Five years ago, the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader in exile, spoke to some 10,000 people at Wood River High School about the virtues of compassion. In the wake of his visit, the Garden of Infinite Compassion was created at the Sawtooth Botanical Garden, south of Ketchum.
The exquisitely tended garden, filled with native plants, enormous rock slabs and a waterfall, has been used over the years as a place for gatherings of all kinds, including meditations, book clubs, wedding ceremonies and memorials.
Financier Kiril Sokoloff brought the Dalai Lama to town, and provided the majority of funding for the Garden of Infinite Compassion.
On Wednesday, Sept. 15, from 5-7 p.m., the Sawtooth Botanical Garden will celebrate the garden's fifth anniversary, along with a dedication of the newly completed alpine and montane gardens. There will be food, refreshments, free raffle prizes and live music.
At the Garden of Infinite Compassion's center is a rare treasure that draws visitors from around the world, a beautifully carved Tibetan prayer wheel that shines within a wooden prayer house. The 400-pound prayer wheel is one of only two blessed by the Dalai Lama in North America. It is filled with more than 2 million prayers written on pieces of paper by Tibetan monks. What is written is the mantra "Om mane padme hum."
The wheel is turned by hand by visitors in an age-old Tibetan ritual intended to send messages of compassion into the cosmos.
"Since its installation, the turning of the wheel has sent literally billions of these mantras all across Blaine County, Idaho and the Mountain West," Sokoloff said.
The prayer wheel was built by Tibetan Buddhist monks in Dharamsala, India, in 2004 and 2005. It took 18 months to complete. When it was finished, it had to be lowered out the window because the building's stairs were too narrow to accommodate it. From there it was taken by truck to Delhi and shipped to Salt Lake City.
"The bombing in London had just taken place," Sokoloff said, referring to the so-called 7/7 attacks on the London public transportation system, which killed 52 people. "By some amazing force of the universe, the prayer wheel was sent to London. No one ordered it to be sent there. The universe sent it. Once the healing job was finished, it miraculously returned to Salt Lake City and from there to Sun Valley."
Carter Hedberg, executive director of the Sawtooth Botanical Garden, said people come from across the country and around the world to visit the Garden of Infinite Compassion.
"What has struck me is the power of the prayer wheel itself," Hedberg said. "I have seen people here with tears running down their cheeks as they experience it."
The Garden of Infinite Compassion is maintained year-round by the Sawtooth Botanical Garden with donations from the community.
Tony Evans: tevans@mtexpress.com
Sawtooth Botanical Garden Executive Director Carter Hedberg stands beside the Tibetan prayer wheel in the Garden of Infinite Compassion. Photo by David N. Seelig
