Persian Garden - Works by A. Nadalian

Persian Gardens Persian

Body Painting and Performance- Behzad & Ahmad Nadalian

This multimedia work by Nadalian show a virtual representation of Garden. The audience or user could use the bottoms and flow different scenes of this garden A favorite composition can be set up through drag and drop.

About Paradise

PARADISE (PARDIS) is a celestial garden. The words of paradeisos in Greek, paradise in European languages, and firdaws in Arabic, originally came from Persia the "Avestan pairi-daeza" , meaning garden, itself was the terrestrial image of the celestial garden of paradise. The term of paradise also means a piece of land made more agreeable than its surroundings by cultivation or an enclosure, and especially a royal park.

In the Islamic religious text paradise (firduws), is described as an eternal spring and garden with which the trees have continuous blossoms and everything is joyful. There is no corruption in this world. The minerals are valuable and crystallized. In paradise the faithful recline at ease, drinking and enjoying the embraces of their celestial spouses. In this garden, there is no time and its inhabitants are all young. . According to Sufis, paradise is the manifestation of absolute beauty and the inhabitants of "Paradise" enter into every beautiful form that they conceive and desire . Moslem mystics simply interpreted paradise as being the good deeds of man.

About Symbolic Signification of Trees and Flowers

Tree in Persian culture has symbolic signification. According to Zoroastrian mythology, the seed of the first man (Gayomart), grew as a plant which turned into the first human couple. The fruit of the tree symbolized the races of mankind and they finally assumed human form.

In Zoroastrian religious texts , it has been mentioned that Gardens of Paradise are adorned with the blossoming trees and multi-coloured flowers and eternal springs.

The cypress is an ancient Aryan symbol of immortality and the conception of it is the most essential in Zoroastrian religion. This tree was considered especially sacred, a symbol of Ahura, Mazda. Among the filowers the rosette is a sun symbols.

In the Manichaean religion also, the kingdom of light and darkness or prince of good and evil are symbolized by two trees of life and death. The Tree of life is decorated with all that is beautiful and is illuminated with all good things. In Manichaean belief "the kingdom of light" is ornamented "with flowers".

The names of some symbolic trees are mentioned in the Holy Qur’an. The Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, on his journey to Heaven, saw two trees in paradise and hell. One of the trees was Tuba, a great tree with branches of emerald and pearl, laden with fruit of all kinds and of exquisite flowers. According to Islamic tradition the Tuba is a tree in paradise. God planted it with his own hand and breathed his spirit into it. The faithful see the Tuba tree in paradise. This symbolic tree of Tuba , in its macrocosmic aspect, is a symbol of the cosmos.

In some Sufi poems, the garden symbolizes the state of ecstasy of a mystic’s heart.The garden also symbolized Unity, and flowers symbolized multiplicity. Sufis say the whole world is joyful because of His presence. Spring is symbolized as the rapture and rejoicing of the spiritual state.

For Sufis the cypress tree is an important symbol, because it remains green and keeps a kind of substantial, reassuring freshness. This tree symbolizes potential wholeness, for biologically it is a tree which contains the masculine and feminine principles within itself, it is a form which appears frequently in iconography. In Sufi poetry, the beauty of the body of the beloved is symbolized as a cypress tree.

In many Sufi poems, flowers had religious significance. Flowers are also symbols of worship and pure morals. Sufis say in their ecstasy and a spiritual journey, they observed illuminated space and a garden which was adorned with colourful flowers.

Artist & Designer: A. Nadalian

Assistant: T.D. Manshadi