Lillian Sum has brought immense creativity and expertise to Osel Ling’s landscape design. Since 2011, she has been involved in several projects in all directions of the Osel Ling hilltop: Rinpoche’s residence, the monks’ residence, the Buddha Garden, the Sangha House, and the central amphitheater. She has sought to support Mingyur Rinpoche’s aspirations to create harmonious yet rejuvenating spaces for visitors and practitioners to benefit from the natural features of the land.

The thought and creativity that went into the landscaping of Osel Ling are remarkable; landscape designer Lillian Sum has done a beautiful job.

Lillian was trained as an environmental architect in England. Her master’s degree focused on creating ecological, solution-based approaches, a philosophy evident throughout Osel Ling.

Landscaping on a hilltop in Nepal brings challenges, particularly with the seasonal monsoons that threaten to sweep away sheets of earth, potentially affecting the grounds and neighboring lands.

“It’s important to consider the land topography overall without boundaries,” Lillian said in a recent interview at Osel Ling. She spoke about drainage and the need to slow the mighty runoff. How does one slow rushing water? By adding troughs underground, layers of different-sized gravel and stone chips into the soil, curving its pathway, diverting overflows for irrigation, providing ample drainage pipes, and building retaining walls in strategic areas.

The Sangha House Garden

The garden at the Sangha House offers a serene, Zen-like atmosphere, incorporating design elements inspired by the five elements — air, water, fire, earth, and space. For those seeking contemplative walking, the garden features rock pathways inlaid with pebbles to stimulate acupressure points and promote a mind-body connection.

Inviting corners for sitting and meditating, year-round flowering plants, and strategically placed bamboo stands to cut the wind enhance the garden while maintaining the mountain views. One particularly beautiful feature is the “moon gate” that marks the garden entrance, creating a defined boundary and private space for retreatants.

“I feel like the basis of my activity here has been to bring in flowing, more feminine shapes and forms to soften and compliment the square blocks of construction,” Lillian explained.

Her artistic eye for shapes, forms, and patterns is evident in the stone walkway at the Sangha House entrance, with designs like ginkgo leaves pressed into the cement and hexagonal shapes resembling flowers, inspired by the Buddhist liturgical text “golden ground strewn with flowers.”

Buddha Garden

Closer to the monastery is the Buddha Garden, completed in 2016. With grass-covered mounds, it has become a place for relaxing picnics or even a snooze. The grass conceals heaps of rubble from old buildings damaged beyond repair by an earthquake. Rather than pay someone to cart off the rubble, Lillian brilliantly used it to enhance the garden, demonstrating a little upcycling and a second lifecycle.

“All the monks helped clear the site,” she said. “With about 100 monks all standing in a line, we got a stack of bricks handed around the corner and made another stack. That made me so happy that everyone joined in to clear the site up efficiently and swiftly!”

At that time, Mingyur Rinpoche asked her, “Can you help plant trees?” That was reminiscent of the same question His Holiness the Gyalwa Karmapa asked her over a decade earlier: “Can you help plant trees?” — a question that led her to lead environmental protection work, which included constructed wetlands and reed bed plantations for the wastewater systems for the campsite and kitchen for 6000 monastics for the annual Kagyu Monlam in Bodhgaya India. 

The Amphitheater

Another remarkable area is the central amphitheater, situated between the monks’ quarters, the old shrine hall, and the new temple. Once a dirt-covered area prone to wind-blown dust, Mingyur Rinpoche asked Lillian to transform it. With the support of the late general manager of Osel Ling Lama Lekshey and the hands of many hardworking teams, she created an amphitheater with terraced walls reminiscent of scenes in the Himalayas of rice paddies, terraces, and a stone floor depicting a beautiful flowing river with mandala designs. The amphitheater is now an outdoor classroom for the resident monks, who practice their meditation sessions here in the mornings and their debates in the evenings.

Inspiration

Lillian first met Mingyur Rinpoche in 2006/07, at which time he invited her to teach environmental education to his monks at his Bodhgaya monastery in India. Before that, as an artist, she had been actively delivering workshops on art and sustainability, commissioned to design and build community gardens and teach on alternative ecological building techniques. It was during 2007/08 that her first landscaping assignment for Rinpoche was to build a rooftop garden for the Bodhgaya monastery. 

Growing up surrounded by the natural beauty of the Derbyshire area in the Peak District, Lillian developed a deep love for nature. In the nearby henge monument of Arbor Low, known as “the Stonehenge of the North,” she was first introduced to sacred sites. In later years, she would travel to many such sites in the southwest of England. “That’s how I really learned about environmentalism,” she said.

She became an environmentalist activist, often living in nature and attending and working at low-impact and off-the-grid arts, music festival experiences.

“We often used to explore and gather with friends in the forest and in the caves to celebrate solstices in these sacred places. We always had this agreement with each other to ‘leave no trace’ and to  clean up after ourselves so to leave it cleaner than how we had found it!” she said. “The friends I met in the southwest were of a similar ilk. We all wanted to protect the planet.”

About the Author

Franka Cordua-von Specht, co-founder of the Tergar Vancouver Practice Group and Tergar Canada, works for Tergar International’s marketing and communication team. She is a Tergar Guide and facilitates Joy of Living workshops.