Victoria's Way

Victoria's Way
Type Meditation
Location near Roundwood, County Wicklow, Ireland
Coordinates 53°05′09″N 6°13′11″W / 53.085765°N 6.219654°W / 53.085765; -6.219654Coordinates: 53°05′09″N 6°13′11″W / 53.085765°N 6.219654°W / 53.085765; -6.219654
Area 9 hectares
Owned by Victor Langheld
Status Open during summer months
Collections Statues
Budget unknown
Website www.VictoriasWay.eu

Victoria's Way, located near Roundwood, County Wicklow, Ireland, is a privately owned meditation garden notable for its black granite sculptures. The 9-hectare property includes a number of small lakes and forested areas. A plaque by the entrance says the park is dedicated to cryptographer Alan Turing.

The park is open to the public during the summer months, with an admission fee for adults.

Sculptures

Most of the park's statues are made of black granite, and range in height from 1.5m to 4.9m.[1] The first structure by the entrance is a sculpted tunnel based on the idea of vagina dentata.

Eight statues are dedicated to Ganesha, showing the elephant god dancing, reading, and playing musical instruments.[2] All the Ganesha sculptures were made in Tamil Nadu, India, and each took five craftsmen a year to make.[3]

The entrance to Victoria's Way.

Other statues include a large python-shaped seat, a solitary index finger pointing at the sky, and interpretations of Buddha, Shiva, Eve, and others.

Many of the sculptures include small motifs of modernity, such as a small pint of Guinness beside a Ganesha and a mobile telephone tucked into the back of a starving Buddha.[4]

Ownership

The park is owned and maintained by Victor Langheld, who was born in 1940 in Berlin and has lived with a number of different religious orders in Thailand, Japan, and Sri Lanka.[5] Family inheritance allowed Langheld to spend most of his adult life travelling to spiritual sites in Asia, before travelling to Ireland and sponsoring the construction of the sculpture park.

Langheld designed most of the sculptures,[3] and continues to curate the park and welcome visitors.

References

  1. ↑ |url=http://homepage.eircom.net/~victoriasway/about_us.htm |date=20080921172123 Victoria's Way, Spiritual Sculpture Park Archive copy at the Wayback Machine
  2. ↑ The Irish Ganesh Exhibition, @ Victoria's Way, Roundwood, Co Wicklow
  3. 1 2 David Kenny's Erindipity
  4. ↑ Wicklow Daily Photo: Indian Sculpture Park VI
  5. ↑ |url=http://homepage.eircom.net/~victoriasway/about_v.htm |date=20100124185321 Victor, of Victoria's Way Archive copy at the Wayback Machine

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, March 27, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.