1st Edition

Asian Gardens History, Beliefs and Design

By Tom Turner Copyright 2010
352 Pages
by Routledge

The gardens made on the fringes of Central Asia in the past 5000 years form a great arc. From the Fertile Crescent, it runs west to Europe and east to China and Japan. Asia's fringe was a zone of interchange: a vast landscape in which herders encountered farmers and the design of symbolic gardens began. It appears that as they became settlers, nomads retained a love of mobility, hunting and the... Read more

1. Belief and Gardens  2. Polytheist Gardens  3. Islamic Gardens  4. Hindu Gardens  5. Buddhist Gardens  6. Daoist-Buddhist Gardens in China  7. Shinto-Buddhist Gardens in Japan  8. International Modern Gardens in Asia.  Afterword.  Maps

Biography

Tom Turner teaches on the undergraduate and masters programmes in garden history and landscape architecture at the University of Greenwich in London.

"Here Turner—with his characteristic use of summary diagrams and tightly structured analyses—charges through polytheist, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, Daoist, and Shinto gardens of West, South, East, and North Asia, with a welcome concluding chapter on abstract modernism. Some readers may be troubled by Turner’s reductionist approach, yet his books pack much between their covers in a manner that is at once quirky, refreshing, and stimulating." - Journal of Australian Garden History

"Tom Turner's Asian Gardens is a visually powerful work, worth its $60-plus price for the photos, plans, and diagrams" - Landscape Architecture Magazine

"...Especially illuminating from a historical viewpoint is the author's use of satellite photos to give a better understanding of the geography of place. Not designed to be a field manual for Asian gardens, this is a thoughtful, convincing analysis of garden design as an expression of the nature of the world, determined by physical, conceptual, and religious influences... Highly recommended." - CHOICE