GARDENS BY THE BAY - INDIAN SAFARI FLORAL DISPLAY

This past week saw many Deepavali celebrations happening here in Singapore. Gardens By The Bay always have some creative displays, which change fairly frequently and embrace the many cultures and festivals that make up the unique Singaporean dynamic.

Together with a fellow blogger from ExpatKiwis.com, I headed to the amazing Flower Dome to check out the Indian Safari Floral Display, which will be in place until the 3rd November, 2014. 

First, for those unfamiliar with the Gardens By The Bay, this You Tube video featuring Andrew Grant, Director of Grant Associates, one of the major firms behind the design and build, gives some insight.  This amazing 101 hectare garden and leisure space with it's two massive "greenhouses", the Cloud Forest and The Flower Dome, along with the grove of 18 Supertrees is certainly a special place to visit here in Singapore.

Now back to my visit to The Flower Dome and the Indian themed floral display.  Being an actual public holiday (Deepavali) on the day we chose to visit, we arrived around 10am to beat the crowds and this proved to be a good decision.  

The display showed us the important cultural symbols of India, Elephants, Tigers,  Peacocks, all made from flowers.  Small round plaques gave us descriptions of the animals and their cultural and religious meanings.  At first I was disappointed that it did not give detail of the Deepavali festival celebration and it's meaning.  However, on reflection, I now see this display is to give a glimpse of Indian culture in general.

Elephants, the symbol of power, dignity, intelligence and peace. Also considered a symbol of good luck and good fortune.

"According to the Hindu cosmology of ancient India, the earth is supported (and guarded) by mythical World Elephants at the compass points of the cardinal directions.  The Elephant also represented wisdom in the form of the deity Ganesh, one of the most popular gods in the Hindu religion's pantheon"

The Tiger with it's position at the top of the ecological pyramid, is a symbol of Indian wealth of wildlife.  It also evokes the idea of royalty, majesty and power.

A sacred bird in Hinduism, the spots on the peacock's tail symbolize the eyes of the Gods.

There were also quite a few very fake looking fake snakes draped around the exhibit, which did make me smile.

Stangely, and I cannot for the life of me understand why, (no plaque description or explanation), but a big stuffed bear was part of the display.  Curiouser and curiouser!!!

As well as the animals, there were of course some beautiful flowers, some of which reminded me so much of summer gardens both in the UK and the USA.  Marigolds and Dahlias, to name but a few.

A slide show of more of my photos.

The Indian Safari Floral Display is on until 3rd November, to buy tickets, head to the Gardens By The Bay website,click here.

To learn more about the impressive Flower Dome in general, click here.

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