Explore Montana: Ewam Garden of One Thousand Buddhas
School is out for the summer, and we have committed to explore our outdoors every Friday for our Explore Montana series. Give your kids an enriching summer with these nearby adventures.
On some days, 2020 seems like a terrifying year to be raising children. A global pandemic. Civil unrest. Giant, deadly insects. We made a commitment to step away from the news stream and take our kids on adventures this summer, so it seemed fitting that we start with a place that inspires peace and reflection: Ewam Garden of One Thousand Buddas.
Located in Arlee, the road trip takes about 30 minutes one way. We met up at 11 (okay, 11:15 for Tiffany) and packed lunches to eat at one of the picnic tables. You drive through a large decorative gate and park in the nearby parking area before starting down a gravel path on foot. Everything is wheelchair and stroller friendly, making the experience inclusive for all.
The garden is both a botanical garden featuring the vibrant colors that are so prevalent this time of year and a place to become spiritually connected. When our kids were still enough to really look around, they found koi fish and tiny frogs in the pond and bumblebees buzzing around the flowers. You’ll encounter Great Stuppas, which are monuments to Buddha where people leave relics — sometimes money, sometimes buttons, sometimes Legos. You’ll also pass Tibetan peace flags. But the real show stopper is the 1,000 hand cast Budda statues arranged in perfect symmetry to form a Dharma Wheel.
Ewam’s mission is to cultivate spiritual awareness in the west and throughout the world. We admit, we don’t know everything about Buddhism, but the garden’s curators insist it is spiritual center for all religions. If you’re new to this, there are plaques denoting the symbolism of the statues. But there was also so much to see and explore that we had a hard time grasping it all. Abandon your desire to be the valedictorian of the garden by the time you leave. If you time your trip just right, there are guided tours.
One of the best lessons our kids learned from this experience were the affirmations by Buddha that were etched in stone around the garden: “You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”
Make time to visit the gift shop where you can buy souvenirs like T-shirts and tokens or items to expand your enlightened experience from home like incense and sound bowls. After about a couple of hours, we packed up our children and headed back home.
Garden of One Thousand Buddhas is located at 34574 White Coyote Rd, Arlee, MT 59821. Call them at (406) 726-0555 or visit ewam.org to learn more.