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I believe that a really good way to understand a culture is through its gardens.
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This is an extraordinary journey to visit 80 inspiring gardens from all over the world.
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Some are very well-known like the Taj Mahal or the Alhambra.
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And I'm also challenging my idea of what a garden actually is.
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So, I'm visiting gardens that float on the Amazon,
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a strange fantasy in the jungle,
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as well as the private homes of great designers,
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and the desert flowering in a garden...
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and wherever I go I shall be meeting people that share my own passion for gardens
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on my epic quest to see the world through 80 of its most fascinating and beautiful gardens.
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This is my very first visit to India,
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and I confess that it's daunted me more than anywhere else in the world.
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I know that this is a country of fierce natural extremes,
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with the weather alternating between drought and torrential monsoon rains.
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However, I also know that this beautiful country holds a rich gardening tradition
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and that's what I want to explore.
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And through its gardens, hopefully, I'll be able to make sense of the country.
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I begin my journey in the imperial state of Rajasthan and the gardens of India's imperial past.
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Then, travelling south to Kerala, I find gardens founded upon the tea and spice trade.
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Finally, I'll return north to Chandigarh,
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and an extraordinary garden that was created in secret in the middle of the jungle.
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Nowhere on this planet is more sensuous than India.
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The colours, scents, sounds, food and sheer physicality,
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create a vibrant turmoil that you simply can't avoid.
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Clearly this is exhilarating, but it is also rather overwhelming,
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and surrounded by this sensuous assault, it is hard to know where to begin.
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So, I decide to start at India's most famous and most visited site.
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But what many tourists don't realise when they make their pilgrimage is that, in fact, this is a garden.
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So I begin my journey at dawn to visit the most iconic building on the planet.
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Of course, the hardest thing on any really well known monument -
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and there is no monument in the world better known than the Taj Mahal -
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is to react trying to forget all the images you've seen.
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Just as when you see
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some extraordinary beauty...
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..the reaction...
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..is to still you.
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It stops you in your tracks and there's not a lot to say.
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All you can do is just experience it.
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The Taj Mahal is the most spectacular example of a Mughal 'tomb garden'.
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Mughal architecture and gardens were always inseparably entwined,
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and the basic template for the gardens
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was taken from the description in the Koran of heaven, which is depicted as a garden.
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The Mughal garden was always divided into four quadrants with water an essential feature.
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Each quadrant was subdivided again with raised pathways,
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although these were remodelled as large lawns under the British-led restoration.
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In the centre of the garden is a large marble tank from which run four broad canals
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in which the ghostly reflection of the tomb is held and shimmers.
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This was a garden intended, literally, as paradise on earth,
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a living mirror of heaven.
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The Taj Mahal is a monument to one of history's great love stories.
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The Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan built it as the final resting place of his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal.
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Its construction took 20,000 men 22 years to complete.
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And every inch, every stone is a testament of love and sorrow.
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The marble up here is blindingly white as the sun rises and it gets hotter.
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It makes a stark contrast to the green of the garden and I'm sure that's deliberate.
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You walk through this garden and arrive at this very austere, very pure place.
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White, white marble.
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Then, inside the tomb itself, it's very dark.
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No photography allowed.
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All you can do is go from this brilliant light into the gloom.
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The famous gardens at the front of the main building are not original,
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having been restored during the first quarter of the 20th century,
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following centuries of gradual neglect.
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But what lies beyond the tomb is far less known, and much more accurately preserved.
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Across the river, ruins can be seen.
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Over the centuries, a myth grew up
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that Shah Jahan had intended to build himself a twin tomb there, but in black marble.
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The Black Taj. The mirror image of his wife's in all but colour.
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But I think the truth is actually much more interesting,
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because the work done since the early '90s has proven that, in fact, this was not a tomb
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but an extension of the garden of the Taj Mahal.
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And down here, what you have is a vast tank,
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which would have been full of water,
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coming right in among these lotus leaf filigrees - imagine the water scalloped in there -
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and a beautiful pavilion around it
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from which people could view the mausoleum,
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the white marble reflected in the water across the river.
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Now, what that means is that
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the Taj Mahal is the centre of the garden both figuratively and literally
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with a beautiful and extraordinary grand garden in front of it and across the river behind it.
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And through the archaeological work, they've managed to reconstruct the garden much more faithfully
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than that which you see in front of the building or, in fact, any of the other Mogul gardens.
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It's planted up really densely with trees and shrubs, with flowers and fruit,
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all of which are designed to enrich the senses.
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So, what you have is a paradise garden and that was deliberate.
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That is what Shah Jahan intended for his bride to have around her as she lay dead.
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Shah Jahan's reign was long and glorious but it ended as it began, with tragedy.
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Not in his paradise garden, but a few miles down the river in the Red Fort of Agra.
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Having created for posterity the heavenly beauty of the Taj Mahal,
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it was here, in the old ruling palace of the Mughals' Indian empire,
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with most of its magnificent buildings, still standing today,
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that Shah Jahan ended his reign,
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not on the throne,
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but as a captive.
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But for the last seven years of his life, he was kept a prisoner here by his own son.
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And although it was a very grand prison - a gilded cage, if you like -
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it did mean that this balcony behind me was the closest that he could get to the Taj Mahal.
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So he'd come and gaze out down the river to where his dead wife lay.
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Whilst undoubtedly the Taj Mahal is the great cultural icon of India,
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and it's essential visiting,
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it's actually only one part of its garden story.
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About an hour down the road, at Sikandra, is Akbar's tomb.
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And this, with it's garden, contains an element that even the Taj Mahal can't match.
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It was built by Shah Jahan's grandfather, The Emperor Akbar,
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who ruled from 1556 to 1605,
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and in many ways it's the precursor of the Taj Mahal.
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But what makes it extremely unusual is to this day,
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it is still filled with extraordinary animals.
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I came, of course, to see the animals, but what I hadn't expected was a sandstorm
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which has really whipped up out of nowhere.
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But it's not ideal because all the animals have run away.
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I managed to grab my hat before it disappears.
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The storm passes and the animals return.
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There are langurs with their young lining up to be admired and fed.
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And blackbuck testing out their fine corkscrew horns.
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And there are peacocks too, out-dazzling everyone and everything.
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The Mughals valued all aspects of nature
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and the menagerie was seen as an integral part of a true paradise garden.
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Hunting was one of the great Mughal pleasures
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and so the animals also provided the emperors with sport.
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But they were only part of any Mughal garden and never the main focus of interest.
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Remember, the gardens were based upon the Islamic ideal of paradise.
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Paradise was a place which, above all, had abundant water,
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and so water was always a part of paradise gardens.
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The whole Islamic Mughal garden mythology was centred around water.
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A large tank of water was always central and also significant -
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the bigger the tank the more important the garden -
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so this is a real whopper of a tank in a very dry part of the country.
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Then you have these rills which it overflowed into.
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You can see how lovely it would be if that was water and catching the sunlight
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this silver line going straight down to the doorway and then leading to the tomb.
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It's really sad that it's empty and dry
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and I can only suppose that water is in such shortage at this dry time of year
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that it just can't be afforded.
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The walkways are raised right above the garden
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with what look to me like holders for torches so you could see it at night.
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By looking down on it, you would see the flowers below you,
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and across into what would have been trees with the animals amongst them.
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It wasn't until the British came and cleared most of the trees,
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to make it look like a Capability Brown park, that you had grassland.
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The Mughals were empire builders,
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successfully invading India from Afghanistan in 1526.
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During the subsequent three centuries, they created a fantastically opulent dynasty.
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What I find really staggering about this place, Akbar's Tomb,
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and, of course, the Taj Mahal is that they are tombs.
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They're not palaces and yet they are enormous, glorious places
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and it makes you realise, apart from anything else, how rich they must have been.
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Almost incomprehensible wealth.
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During the 16th and 17th centuries,
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Mughal society was at the height of its cultural and artistic sophistication.
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Akbar's Tomb and the Taj Mahal were only two of the many magnificent gardens of that era.
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While most now lie in ruins, all bear witness to that golden age of Mughal power.
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Before the Mughals established their rule,
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India was a series of individual, mainly Hindu, states,
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each with its own ruler or Maharajah.
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The Mughals were canny enough not to sweep away this existing culture,
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but gave them wealth and power and let them keep their religion.
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So, the Maharajahs continued to build and maintain their own palaces and gardens,
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although, their gardens were not devoted to Allah, but to pleasure.
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Thank you.
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In my next garden, the principle pleasure is relief from the unbearable Rajasthan summer heat.
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Built in the mid-18th century, the Monsoon Garden at Deeg was a large palace
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with a whole range of gardens all devoted to cooling display and entertainment.
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The Mughal gardens were based strictly upon order, restraint and harmony,
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and although Deeg, made 100 years after the Taj Mahal, does show many Mughal influences,
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it's frankly extravert, slightly kitsch and technically ingenious.
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From up here on the roof, you can see clearly the layout of the Char Bagh,
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or the Mogul, four quadrants of the garden.
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The key difference is in the way that water is used,
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because in Islamic and Mogul gardens, it tended to be tinkling and modest,
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whereas here, it's festive, it's a socking great display,
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and I think that's the key to the difference between the Moguls and the Maharajahs.
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They did like to party and to party as extravagantly as possible.
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The water needed for the fountains
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and all the other extraordinary displays of water they used in the garden
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all had to be brought up here
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into this tank
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which holds, apparently, 600,000 gallons -
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every single drop of which had to be drawn up.
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Before it was filled, all these holes around the outside -
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there are hundreds of them - were stopped up with wooden bungs.
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It would be filled up and would just sit there.
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Then if wanted water to go to particular parts of the garden
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or even particular fountains you pulled out the appropriate bung and down it went.
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They could even change the colour of the fountains by adding dye to the water.
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Now, this enormous quantity of water was drawn up
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from a big deep well there
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by a wheel into a huge leather bucket
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that would just balance on the edge there
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and that was drawn by ropes by a pair of oxen.
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You can see that the ropes over the years have worn a groove in the stone.
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The oxen would go down the hill drawing up the full leather bucket of water
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and then come back up here and it was the job of one man
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just to tip the water out onto this slope.
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It ran down into this corner, underneath the walkway into the tank.
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It took that team a whole month to fill it up.
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To get the most from this garden it's important to imagine it as a place filled with water.
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Instead of being a sort of monolithic stony lines,
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these canals would be light and silvery, and reflecting the sky and the greenery.
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There would be colour from the different fountains, colour from the reflections,
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colour from the people in their gorgeous clothes walking around.
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It would be a place of festival and entertainment and light,
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and not this sort of semi-archaeological place,
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which is fascinating but doesn't really do it justice at all.
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This cage jutting out from the side of the building where everyone could see it was to house a tiger.
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The ingenuity of the waterworks is extraordinary
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and they culminate in one outrageous performance in this building.
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This pavilion is the culmination of the Maharajah's extravagance.
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I think it's the most opulent thing I've ever seen in a garden anywhere in the world.
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It's the Monsoon Pavilion
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and it was used to simulate and recreate the monsoon.
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There was a wide canal surrounding the central area,
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with large fountains that would flow.
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The roof is a false roof and effectively it's a water tank
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filled up from the basin across on the large roof.
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When it was full, water would run down from small pipes on the inside
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to create a curtain of rain.
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So, the Maharajah and his friends and family could sit on the inside
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and look through this wall of rain, just like the monsoon.
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There were also, incredibly, metal balls inside the hollow columns
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that banged together as the water flowed past them simulating thunder.
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The whole thing, an orgy of water, noise and blessed coolness.
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So, you had the rumble of thunder, the crashing of the water, the fragrance of the rain.
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All that would last for an afternoon
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and that piece of theatre would take the entire tank on the roof
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that took a month to fill.
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Now, I would go on into the central area but it's occupied by rhesus macaques,
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who've made it very clear that it's their territory
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and they certainly don't want me or anyone else on
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and I'm advised they have a very nasty bite.
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From the vantage point of the top tank, you can see that Deeg is set in a parched landscape,
232
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so this extravagance of the water garden was a dramatic statement of the wealth and power of the owner.
233
00:21:11,800 --> 00:21:15,960
The two huge lower tanks were a key part of the garden's water system,
234
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but today it is being used only by local people to wash clothes and themselves.
235
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The jubilant watery celebrations belong really to the past,
236
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and for much of the time, the garden sits silent and dry.
237
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But my next garden is a Maharajah's pleasure garden that is being brought expertly back to life.
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So I make the journey four hours drive west of Deeg,
239
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to Jaipur, the Red City and the capital of Rajasthan,
240
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whose broad streets are four times as densely populated as London
241
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and they throng with hectic life.
242
00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:09,760
However much you prepare yourself for India and read about it,
243
00:22:09,760 --> 00:22:13,360
nothing can really ready you for the sensual assault.
244
00:22:13,360 --> 00:22:16,400
Everything you look at is an extraordinary picture,
245
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the colours, the sounds, the scents, the tastes,
246
00:22:20,760 --> 00:22:24,440
are so vivid that it is genuinely overwhelming.
247
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You feel submerged from time to time.
248
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And, it's all rather wonderful.
249
00:22:42,360 --> 00:22:47,080
The garden I've come to see lies just outside the old city.
250
00:22:57,680 --> 00:23:01,920
The water garden at Deeg is very beautiful but it is a ghost garden.
251
00:23:01,920 --> 00:23:07,920
You feel that without the water and without lots of people, it doesn't truly come alive.
252
00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:10,920
Well, this is a very different kettle of fish.
253
00:23:10,920 --> 00:23:15,600
It's very alive but it's in a state of disrepair.
254
00:23:15,600 --> 00:23:20,040
This is the Jal Mahal, and every year, after the monsoon rains have fallen,
255
00:23:20,040 --> 00:23:23,280
this garden comes truly into its own.
256
00:23:25,200 --> 00:23:30,200
Now in the middle of the dry season, it looks as though Jal Mahal
257
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is set on the edge of a potential landfill site.
258
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But actually it's positioned in the middle of a giant lake
259
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and when the monsoons come, this will fill right up.
260
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A vast wall barricades the valley,
261
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creating a dam to hold the water that pours off the mountains
262
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to form the lake which surrounds the building.
263
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So this isn't a garden containing a water feature, but a water feature containing a garden!
264
00:23:56,720 --> 00:24:00,000
In fact, there's so much water that,
265
00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:02,200
at the peak of the floods,
266
00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:04,840
the whole of the lower storey would be flooded
267
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and you can see that the windows are staggered diagonally
268
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to provide different landing stages for visitors,
269
00:24:11,360 --> 00:24:13,360
as they came to the building.
270
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But for the moment visitors are barred since the site is being restored.
271
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Luckily, that doesn't include us.
272
00:24:23,120 --> 00:24:28,040
This building may look from the outside like another wonderful palace
273
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but, in fact, the whole thing exists to support a pleasure garden.
274
00:24:36,080 --> 00:24:40,040
And when it came to pleasure, the Maharajahs bowed to no-one.
275
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What style they had!
276
00:24:49,280 --> 00:24:53,480
They created an artificial island, shaped it like a palace,
277
00:24:53,480 --> 00:24:58,280
and then flooded an entire valley, simply to create a lovely garden.
278
00:24:58,280 --> 00:25:01,160
And although it's fallen into disrepair,
279
00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:03,640
the garden is being restored and reinvented
280
00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:07,000
with the help of the American garden designer Mitch Crites.
281
00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:10,440
What are you hoping to achieve here? What's the plan?
282
00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:12,640
The first phase is to complete the garden
283
00:25:12,640 --> 00:25:15,920
and we're calling it Chameli Bagh. Chameli means jasmine
284
00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:20,440
and jasmine is a very beautiful, fragrant flower and scents the entire garden.
285
00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:26,880
And then, inside the garden, we've taken a floral arabesque design which is a fusion
286
00:25:26,880 --> 00:25:30,320
of all of those elements that have come from the past.
287
00:25:30,320 --> 00:25:33,200
Hindu, Muslim, Mogul, Persian.
288
00:25:41,760 --> 00:25:45,720
Jaipur probably, maybe only Florence,
289
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and a few other cities in the world, have so many living arts and crafts.
290
00:25:49,520 --> 00:25:54,320
These stone carvers, without any doubt their ancestors were employed
291
00:25:54,320 --> 00:25:58,000
to create the original city of Jaipur in the 18th century.
292
00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:01,920
And these skills have been passed on from generation to generation.
293
00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:06,520
You're saying that the same families of craftsmen
294
00:26:06,520 --> 00:26:10,800
are still working on this that worked on the original building.
295
00:26:10,800 --> 00:26:15,920
No-one is in touch with second millennium BC roots, the way India is
296
00:26:15,920 --> 00:26:18,240
and that makes India very special.
297
00:26:18,240 --> 00:26:21,600
You've lived here for over 40 years,
298
00:26:21,600 --> 00:26:26,080
tell me what it's like to experience the monsoon - I can hardly imagine.
299
00:26:26,080 --> 00:26:28,520
Well, it's an extraordinary time.
300
00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:30,200
This is April.
301
00:26:30,200 --> 00:26:33,480
The heat hasn't even hit yet. Heat and dust hasn't even hit.
302
00:26:33,480 --> 00:26:38,880
Soon it will become hotter - 47, 48, 49 degrees
303
00:26:38,880 --> 00:26:44,280
and then the sky will turn yellow and the sun will turn lavender
304
00:26:44,280 --> 00:26:46,800
and it becomes hotter and hotter and more humid
305
00:26:46,800 --> 00:26:49,760
and you know the rain is up there but it doesn't come down.
306
00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:53,120
And people who feel like clawing at the sky, to make it come down.
307
00:26:53,120 --> 00:26:54,920
It's there but it doesn't fall.
308
00:26:54,920 --> 00:27:00,840
When it falls, if anybody - children, adults - riding in a car,
309
00:27:00,840 --> 00:27:05,040
you get out of the car and you stand in the rain, you just stand there.
310
00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:13,000
Thank God, it's come, finally it's come.
311
00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:15,920
It's a great, great relief.
312
00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:28,960
The garden's empty because it's the middle of the day, and it is quite phenomenally hot.
313
00:27:28,960 --> 00:27:30,920
Heroically hot.
314
00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:36,800
Everybody other than the odd mad dog and one even madder Englishman,
315
00:27:36,800 --> 00:27:39,720
is taking refuge from the sun.
316
00:27:39,720 --> 00:27:45,800
But seeing it in its empty state, it reinforces the fact that this is the first of my gardens I've seen
317
00:27:45,800 --> 00:27:48,840
in the process of being made and very early stages too.
318
00:27:48,840 --> 00:27:53,960
And that's interesting and exciting because it brings home,
319
00:27:53,960 --> 00:27:57,360
it brings to life the continuity that is expressed here.
320
00:27:57,360 --> 00:28:03,160
The continuity of materials that come from the same quarries, of craftsmanship, even of craftsmen
321
00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:07,920
because it was their ancestors that made the original building two and a half centuries ago
322
00:28:07,920 --> 00:28:14,200
that were connected to the people that made the Taj Mahal, that go back thousands of years.
323
00:28:19,960 --> 00:28:24,960
But while the Maharajas built their grand palaces for spectacular outward display,
324
00:28:24,960 --> 00:28:28,080
there's another type of Hindu garden I very much want to see.
325
00:28:28,080 --> 00:28:31,520
One created primarily to satisfy inner needs.
326
00:28:33,280 --> 00:28:37,400
If you're not careful, it's easy to assume that a culture is best represented
327
00:28:37,400 --> 00:28:39,600
by the gardens of the great and the good.
328
00:28:39,600 --> 00:28:43,120
But it's not all maharajahs' palaces here in Rajasthan,
329
00:28:43,120 --> 00:28:47,720
and true Hindu gardens can be found best in temples
330
00:28:47,720 --> 00:28:53,400
and I'm now going to see a very modest temple with its own little courtyard garden.
331
00:28:55,800 --> 00:29:01,440
My guide to the sacred plants of this Hindu Temple Garden is Saurab Sinclair.
332
00:29:01,440 --> 00:29:04,240
- Shoes.
- Shoes off. Is that really important?
333
00:29:04,240 --> 00:29:07,400
It is, it's to keep the purity of the space.
334
00:29:07,400 --> 00:29:09,600
They haven't seen my feet!
335
00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:12,160
That's part of your purity at the moment.
336
00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:18,800
Now you say this is a typical Hindu garden.
337
00:29:18,800 --> 00:29:22,080
That's correct. This is a temple garden really.
338
00:29:22,080 --> 00:29:26,240
Everything here is because it's auspicious or it's worshipped.
339
00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:28,360
You've got the jasmine,
340
00:29:28,360 --> 00:29:31,000
the banana,
341
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:33,160
- people tree...
- Which is essential.
342
00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:34,600
Which is essential.
343
00:29:34,600 --> 00:29:37,200
The branches look more like the roots
344
00:29:37,200 --> 00:29:41,360
and they believe that's how it connects the two worlds together, that it's upside down.
345
00:29:41,360 --> 00:29:45,000
My feet are connecting rather painfully to the surface. It is so hot!
346
00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:46,640
We should move to the temple.
347
00:29:48,600 --> 00:29:50,520
That's really hot!
348
00:29:50,520 --> 00:29:53,840
- It's a warm courtyard.
- Now this obviously is the temple itself.
349
00:29:53,840 --> 00:29:55,560
This is the main temple.
350
00:29:55,560 --> 00:30:01,040
There's a little Krishna temple around the corner but this is the main sanctity of the temple.
351
00:30:01,040 --> 00:30:03,840
- HE SPEAKS HINDU
- What were you asking for there?
352
00:30:03,840 --> 00:30:08,480
I was asking for the blessings, which would be the water with some basil in it.
353
00:30:10,160 --> 00:30:11,720
So that you can be blessed.
354
00:30:11,720 --> 00:30:13,840
Right, what do I have to do?
355
00:30:13,840 --> 00:30:16,520
Big bit of basil there. It's all falling out.
356
00:30:16,520 --> 00:30:21,560
- So just touch it to your lips and over your head.
- OK.
357
00:30:21,560 --> 00:30:23,960
- That's it.
- Fully blessed!
358
00:30:23,960 --> 00:30:28,000
I'll show you the plant, it's right here if you can brave the courtyard again.
359
00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:31,240
It looks sort of a bit like marjoram, doesn't it?
360
00:30:31,240 --> 00:30:32,800
But it's...
361
00:30:32,800 --> 00:30:34,440
HE SNIFFS
362
00:30:34,440 --> 00:30:38,560
Oh, gosh, it's much more pungent and intense.
363
00:30:38,560 --> 00:30:45,880
They continuously pluck it to place into the water, to place on lunar eclipses in your food.
364
00:30:45,880 --> 00:30:50,920
They use the seeds to give it to widows so that they keep their chaste.
365
00:30:50,920 --> 00:30:53,600
- Quells their lust.
- Quells their lust.
366
00:30:53,600 --> 00:30:57,400
The design of this little garden isn't important. That's not the point.
367
00:30:57,400 --> 00:31:00,680
The plants are being grown as material for fragrant offerings,
368
00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:03,280
or for their religious symbolism.
369
00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:08,440
This small temple garden
370
00:31:08,440 --> 00:31:14,040
is actually closest to the pure Hindu idea of a garden that there is.
371
00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:19,320
But the Moguls were very wise when they let Hinduism exist,
372
00:31:19,320 --> 00:31:24,440
and places like this could continue as they always have done for centuries,
373
00:31:24,440 --> 00:31:29,200
and the Maharajahs didn't reject all the Mogul influences.
374
00:31:29,200 --> 00:31:33,840
They absorbed them and made something of their own and again there was a coexistence.
375
00:31:33,840 --> 00:31:39,160
If there is such a thing as a typical truly Indian garden, then I suppose that this is it.
376
00:31:39,160 --> 00:31:44,560
And it's interesting that the most humble and practical of gardens is still in constant use
377
00:31:44,560 --> 00:31:47,760
while those of the rich and powerful eventually fall away.
378
00:31:47,760 --> 00:31:52,680
And the main reason for this is that here, in the bone dry north of India, water is so precious
379
00:31:52,680 --> 00:31:55,880
that you need incredible wealth just to maintain a garden.
380
00:31:55,880 --> 00:31:58,160
When the money dried up, so did the gardens.
381
00:31:58,160 --> 00:32:01,320
But down south, in the lush hills of Kerala,
382
00:32:01,320 --> 00:32:05,800
the climate is so perfect for plants, almost all plants,
383
00:32:05,800 --> 00:32:08,520
that money practically grows on trees.
384
00:32:12,120 --> 00:32:16,680
For over 1,000 years, traders have made fortunes in the port of Kochin.
385
00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:22,840
And the town is deliciously infused with the smell of the commodity that lured them here.
386
00:32:22,840 --> 00:32:24,640
The warm, exotic scents of spice.
387
00:32:24,640 --> 00:32:29,280
The influence of a succession of spice merchants from around the world
388
00:32:29,280 --> 00:32:33,360
can still be seen in the old Dutch streets, the 16th-century Portuguese church,
389
00:32:33,360 --> 00:32:38,400
and, most dramatically, in the beautiful Chinese fishing nets.
390
00:32:42,040 --> 00:32:48,040
Spices have drawn people here from the other side of the world for hundreds and hundreds of years.
391
00:32:48,040 --> 00:32:50,200
The Chinese were the first to come here.
392
00:32:50,200 --> 00:32:53,360
Then the Portuguese came at the end of the 15th century,
393
00:32:53,360 --> 00:32:56,320
then the Dutch took over at the end of the 17th century
394
00:32:56,320 --> 00:33:00,800
and finally the British took possession at the beginning of the 19th century.
395
00:33:00,800 --> 00:33:04,400
So there's been wave upon wave of colonisation,
396
00:33:04,400 --> 00:33:07,520
based entirely upon the spice trade.
397
00:33:11,240 --> 00:33:13,360
Given its geographical position,
398
00:33:13,360 --> 00:33:19,720
the coast of southern India is a natural staging post for trade between the West and the Far East.
399
00:33:19,720 --> 00:33:22,200
But what makes it ideal for the spice trade
400
00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:27,320
are the perfect growing conditions in the lush green hills inland.
401
00:33:34,360 --> 00:33:39,680
Hot, wet and steamy and yet, critically, cooled by cloud,
402
00:33:39,680 --> 00:33:44,400
the mountain jungles are rich with treasure growing on the hillsides.
403
00:33:44,400 --> 00:33:49,240
These forests are the indigenous habitat of some of the most valuable plants in the world.
404
00:33:49,240 --> 00:33:54,400
So, appropriately enough, my next visit is to a spice garden.
405
00:34:02,040 --> 00:34:05,120
Part small-holding, part permaculture
406
00:34:05,120 --> 00:34:09,120
and part botanical garden, Mr Abraham's plot defies categorisation.
407
00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:12,280
But one thing is instantly apparent - it is expertly tended,
408
00:34:12,280 --> 00:34:17,480
with some of the world's most sought-after plants growing happily here in his tame piece of jungle.
409
00:34:17,480 --> 00:34:22,120
The star of the garden is a plant native to Kerala,
410
00:34:22,120 --> 00:34:26,840
which finds its way on to practically every dining table in the world.
411
00:34:26,840 --> 00:34:28,800
- You can see the pepper here.
- Ah-ha.
412
00:34:28,800 --> 00:34:31,720
See the pepper growing, see.
413
00:34:31,720 --> 00:34:34,800
So it grows as a little bundle of seeds?
414
00:34:34,800 --> 00:34:36,760
Actually when the flower comes,
415
00:34:36,760 --> 00:34:43,080
it is white in colour and when the rainwater oozes from the top to the bottom the pollination happens.
416
00:34:43,080 --> 00:34:46,520
- So it's pollinated by rainwater?
- Yeah, no honeybees, no wind.
417
00:34:46,520 --> 00:34:49,360
It is through the rainwater the pollination happens.
418
00:34:49,360 --> 00:34:51,040
If no rain, no fruit grows...
419
00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:55,880
And you see when they ripe they become red colour, you see the red colour here...
420
00:34:55,880 --> 00:35:00,200
And if you peel the skin off and dry that, it's white pepper.
421
00:35:00,200 --> 00:35:06,920
See the green and red? Dry in the sun - within one day both these will change to black colour.
422
00:35:06,920 --> 00:35:10,000
- Which do you prefer?
- You want to taste one pepper?
423
00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:11,040
Lets try that one.
424
00:35:11,040 --> 00:35:14,280
White one - the most strong one.
425
00:35:14,280 --> 00:35:16,520
OK, see if I can take it, if I'm man enough.
426
00:35:18,040 --> 00:35:20,440
Do you have a bottle of water with you?
427
00:35:20,440 --> 00:35:22,280
No. It is strong!
428
00:35:22,280 --> 00:35:25,600
It's nice, its good, it's not nasty is it. It's just hot.
429
00:35:25,600 --> 00:35:27,400
It's hot and high flavour
430
00:35:27,400 --> 00:35:30,680
- and you know it is the best pepper in the world.
- Really?
431
00:35:30,680 --> 00:35:32,960
Yes, pepper originated in Kerala.
432
00:35:32,960 --> 00:35:35,360
- And it did come from here?
- Yeah.
433
00:35:35,360 --> 00:35:38,840
- I tell you what, I can hardly speak!
- HE LAUGHS
434
00:35:38,840 --> 00:35:43,400
The pepper's just hit me. I haven't got any water, but I will survive.
435
00:35:43,400 --> 00:35:45,920
'He did warn me!
436
00:35:45,920 --> 00:35:51,960
'Then Mr Abraham led me to a stand of another very valuable, native Kerala spice.'
437
00:35:51,960 --> 00:35:56,400
- Ah, this is cardamom, the queen of spice.
- The queen...
438
00:35:56,400 --> 00:36:00,000
You know, that's the fruit.
439
00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:02,600
See here, see the fruit grows in...
440
00:36:02,600 --> 00:36:06,440
we call it the panicle, it comes just at the bottom of the plant.
441
00:36:06,440 --> 00:36:09,360
This is the plant, actually.
442
00:36:09,360 --> 00:36:13,000
It grows up in the shade, under the trees, bigger trees only.
443
00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:15,240
Do you want to taste some fresh cardamom?
444
00:36:15,240 --> 00:36:19,640
Do you know, I honestly don't know what cardamom tastes like,
445
00:36:19,640 --> 00:36:22,920
but it is a really important spice, isn't it?
446
00:36:22,920 --> 00:36:26,160
- It is the taste of India.
- I've got to taste it, haven't I?
447
00:36:26,160 --> 00:36:33,640
It is used in tea, coffee, in, um, sweet preparation, meat preparation, and in many medicine it is used.
448
00:36:33,640 --> 00:36:38,480
It is very good for blood circulation, like ginger.
449
00:36:38,480 --> 00:36:40,520
It's very seductive.
450
00:36:40,520 --> 00:36:47,600
'Mr Abraham and his family have been growing spices on this plot entirely organically, for three generations.
451
00:36:47,600 --> 00:36:51,040
'It is fascinating to see something that you hardly think of
452
00:36:51,040 --> 00:36:53,960
'as a plant at all growing in its natural home.'
453
00:36:53,960 --> 00:36:55,600
That is coffee.
454
00:36:55,600 --> 00:36:59,440
Yes, I thought I recognised that. I've never seen coffee in flower.
455
00:36:59,440 --> 00:37:02,560
This is coffee arabica.
456
00:37:02,560 --> 00:37:05,800
- It's lovely. Like jasmine.
- Smells like jasmine.
457
00:37:13,960 --> 00:37:17,480
- What's this in the corner here?
- That is turmeric,
458
00:37:17,480 --> 00:37:22,200
and it is the root of the turmeric that is the real spice.
459
00:37:22,200 --> 00:37:28,040
- This is the root.
- Pinch it and see the colour.
- Can I break this?
460
00:37:28,040 --> 00:37:31,400
The fresh one is mostly used for medicines,
461
00:37:31,400 --> 00:37:33,920
against snake bites, spider bites and so on...
462
00:37:33,920 --> 00:37:36,320
It kills all the poisons.
463
00:37:36,320 --> 00:37:39,960
In India you have the relationship between health and food
464
00:37:39,960 --> 00:37:44,280
sorted out and its very sophisticated and very successful...
465
00:37:44,280 --> 00:37:48,520
In the West, we don't do this and it's clumsy.
466
00:37:48,520 --> 00:37:52,680
- You can start.
- You're dead right, we can start and we should start.
467
00:37:55,280 --> 00:37:58,920
'I think that one of the best ways to understand the past is to smell
468
00:37:58,920 --> 00:38:05,760
'and taste it, and seeing these spices grow underlined the extraordinary historical wealth
469
00:38:05,760 --> 00:38:13,160
'to be had from India, based upon plants that could be easily grown and then traded at vast profit.
470
00:38:13,160 --> 00:38:17,360
'The tropical mountain climate is not just ideal for growing spices,
471
00:38:17,360 --> 00:38:21,120
'but also another plant, introduced by the British from China,
472
00:38:21,120 --> 00:38:27,000
'and which provides the raw ingredient for the one thing I always miss most on my travels -
473
00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:28,120
'a nice cup of tea.
474
00:38:28,120 --> 00:38:32,960
'The British originally introduced tea growing to India
475
00:38:32,960 --> 00:38:37,240
'in the early 19th century when tea was moving from the preserve
476
00:38:37,240 --> 00:38:39,880
'of refined society to ordinary working people.'
477
00:38:42,080 --> 00:38:46,640
'This was encouraged mainly because it was an alternative to alcohol,
478
00:38:46,640 --> 00:38:51,160
'but also because it needed boiling, so the water was purified,
479
00:38:51,160 --> 00:38:54,320
'making it a safe as well as a temperate drink.
480
00:38:56,080 --> 00:39:00,560
'I hadn't expected tea to make such a bewitching scene.'
481
00:39:03,120 --> 00:39:09,600
'Walking through it is like wading through a vast, bristly green sculpture.'
482
00:39:09,600 --> 00:39:14,720
The tea crop makes for the most beautiful landscape
483
00:39:14,720 --> 00:39:21,360
because the bushes are organised in a series of crazed patterns,
484
00:39:21,360 --> 00:39:23,400
like drying mud,
485
00:39:23,400 --> 00:39:26,840
and that mixture of uniformity
486
00:39:26,840 --> 00:39:32,240
and rhythmic but irregular change,
487
00:39:32,240 --> 00:39:35,280
is just like a lot of modern topiary.
488
00:39:35,280 --> 00:39:39,200
In fact, I'd go so far as to say, this is as beautiful
489
00:39:39,200 --> 00:39:42,800
as many a garden. They're called tea gardens.
490
00:39:42,800 --> 00:39:46,760
It raises that perennial question, when is a garden not a garden?
491
00:39:46,760 --> 00:39:50,000
I think in a place like this that question becomes irrelevant,
492
00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:53,400
the whole thing just evaporates
493
00:39:53,400 --> 00:39:59,120
into one beautiful, man-made arrangement of plants.
494
00:40:09,360 --> 00:40:13,960
'All tea is produced from the leaves of camellias.
495
00:40:13,960 --> 00:40:15,400
'In fact, the vast majority
496
00:40:15,400 --> 00:40:18,920
'of all tea comes from one particular species,
497
00:40:18,920 --> 00:40:22,320
'which is camellia sinensis, the Chinese camellia.'
498
00:40:22,320 --> 00:40:26,920
It's just these tender leaves that are picked
499
00:40:26,920 --> 00:40:31,760
and it's that that produces your morning cuppa.
500
00:40:35,560 --> 00:40:39,840
'These perfectly manicured hillsides are a combination
501
00:40:39,840 --> 00:40:42,280
'of natural and man-made beauty,
502
00:40:42,280 --> 00:40:47,000
'although I suspect that the women working in them might see them in a less ecstatic way.
503
00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:52,320
'They are maintained to look like this only as a result of their constant labour,
504
00:40:52,320 --> 00:40:56,400
'with much of the crop still harvested entirely by hand.
505
00:40:56,400 --> 00:41:00,280
'They are called tea gardens, but I am not going to count them
506
00:41:00,280 --> 00:41:04,600
'as one of my 80 gardens, although it was fascinating to see them.
507
00:41:04,600 --> 00:41:08,560
'However, the tea company here does maintain a real garden
508
00:41:08,560 --> 00:41:12,720
'at its head office, and that is where I am going now.'
509
00:41:21,480 --> 00:41:26,840
'The Railway Garden is built around a de-commissioned railway station in the hill town of Munnar.
510
00:41:26,840 --> 00:41:30,840
'But crikey! It is rum do.
511
00:41:30,840 --> 00:41:37,080
'It's just like stepping into a hand-tinted postcard of a 1930's British garden.'
512
00:41:47,120 --> 00:41:51,600
This is a very strange place.
513
00:41:51,600 --> 00:41:54,680
I'm not sure I know what to make of this at all.
514
00:41:59,560 --> 00:42:03,440
So you've got hydrangeas, just like my grandfather used to grow.
515
00:42:06,280 --> 00:42:11,520
And snapdragons, Salvias, Alstroemerias -
516
00:42:11,520 --> 00:42:14,120
all the ingredients of an English garden,
517
00:42:14,120 --> 00:42:19,240
but it doesn't look like any kind of English garden that I've seen for, what...
518
00:42:19,240 --> 00:42:21,920
30, 40 years?
519
00:42:23,680 --> 00:42:27,480
'This garden looks like a pre-war time warp.
520
00:42:27,480 --> 00:42:31,960
'But, astonishingly, it was created as recently as 1980.'
521
00:42:37,040 --> 00:42:41,160
These rows of salvias
522
00:42:41,160 --> 00:42:46,920
and white alyssum, now white alyssum takes me back. When I was a child,
523
00:42:46,920 --> 00:42:53,000
the bedding by the front door, year in, year out, was white alyssum and pelargonium,
524
00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:58,720
but what's curious is that anybody over 50 coming from England would recognise
525
00:42:58,720 --> 00:43:03,000
lots of elements of this garden with a sort of dreamy nostalgia.
526
00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:05,840
But anybody under 35 or 40
527
00:43:05,840 --> 00:43:08,360
would recognise practically nothing here.
528
00:43:08,360 --> 00:43:11,280
It would be completely surreal.
529
00:43:17,560 --> 00:43:20,720
When would this tea have been picked?
530
00:43:20,720 --> 00:43:22,240
- Yesterday.
- Really?
- Yes.
531
00:43:25,240 --> 00:43:26,760
We've got...
532
00:43:26,760 --> 00:43:31,640
a yearly flower show that we have and it's organised by the YWCA,
533
00:43:31,640 --> 00:43:34,680
that's the Young Women's Christian Association.
534
00:43:34,680 --> 00:43:38,760
and, er, every year the garden comes first.
535
00:43:38,760 --> 00:43:42,480
It's got so many flowers around, it makes you feel good.
536
00:43:42,480 --> 00:43:46,600
I like the entire garden, it's beautiful.
537
00:43:46,600 --> 00:43:51,040
Is it deliberately evoking British connections?
538
00:43:51,040 --> 00:43:54,760
This garden has a lot of British touch in it.
539
00:43:54,760 --> 00:43:59,120
But I think if you go elsewhere you may not find a garden as beautiful as this.
540
00:43:59,120 --> 00:44:03,720
In general, do people like those British connections,
541
00:44:03,720 --> 00:44:08,520
or is it something that is done for historical reasons or because they like the result?
542
00:44:08,520 --> 00:44:10,960
I think they do like the British association.
543
00:44:10,960 --> 00:44:16,880
They've left behind a lot of cultures which we still do follow.
544
00:44:18,320 --> 00:44:22,000
'This garden is a relic from colonial days, although in fact
545
00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:25,800
'the Raj was already a distant memory when it was created.
546
00:44:25,800 --> 00:44:30,400
'But in its own dotty way, I think it is completely charming.'
547
00:44:30,400 --> 00:44:32,960
You know what it's like, it's like, um...
548
00:44:34,720 --> 00:44:37,720
ladies sitting by the sea,
549
00:44:37,720 --> 00:44:39,680
in a row,
550
00:44:39,680 --> 00:44:43,680
quite comfortable with their lives but looking back over it,
551
00:44:43,680 --> 00:44:45,600
rather than looking forward.
552
00:44:49,960 --> 00:44:52,720
'For all the eccentric Englishness of the garden,
553
00:44:52,720 --> 00:44:57,520
'as I leave I am confronted with a reminder that I'm actually a long way from home!'
554
00:44:57,520 --> 00:45:02,280
We are walking down here because there is an elephant on the back of a lorry there.
555
00:45:02,280 --> 00:45:07,920
I don't know what it is doing or where it is going, but I have never seen an elephant like that before.
556
00:45:12,360 --> 00:45:15,400
What a beautiful, beautiful animal.
557
00:45:17,600 --> 00:45:22,760
Last night one of the production team was woken up by a terrible crashing in the night
558
00:45:22,760 --> 00:45:28,560
and couldn't imagine what it was, and went out and it was an elephant tearing up the garden in the hotel.
559
00:45:28,560 --> 00:45:34,000
Seeing that makes you realise that we are in another country here.
560
00:45:38,800 --> 00:45:42,760
OK, this is not something I thought I would never say -
561
00:45:42,760 --> 00:45:44,440
follow that elephant!
562
00:46:22,920 --> 00:46:26,520
I'm now going back north to visit a much more potent symbol
563
00:46:26,520 --> 00:46:31,240
of British influence on India - the capital city of New Delhi.
564
00:46:36,280 --> 00:46:39,640
'New Delhi was designed by the British as a statement
565
00:46:39,640 --> 00:46:44,440
'of power and order, established with massive confidence in stone,
566
00:46:44,440 --> 00:46:46,720
'parks and grand vistas.
567
00:46:46,720 --> 00:46:50,440
'It is landscape architecture on a breathtaking scale.'
568
00:46:50,440 --> 00:46:53,840
I've seen pictures of this, or photographs...
569
00:46:53,840 --> 00:46:59,880
but actually in the flesh it's much more impressive, the whole scale is much bigger than I'd imagined.
570
00:47:06,280 --> 00:47:09,200
'In 1912, the building of New Delhi began.
571
00:47:09,200 --> 00:47:12,840
'It was to be a city suited to the grandeur of its status
572
00:47:12,840 --> 00:47:16,720
'as India's new capital, and this enormous project was given
573
00:47:16,720 --> 00:47:21,800
'to a relatively young and unknown English architect, Sir Edwin Lutyens.'
574
00:47:21,800 --> 00:47:27,120
Now, the extraordinary thing about Lutyens is that although he was a wonderful architect
575
00:47:27,120 --> 00:47:31,200
and designer, actually, I know him best as a garden designer,
576
00:47:31,200 --> 00:47:36,640
because he and Gertrude Jekyll did a whole series of gardens at the beginning of the 20th century,
577
00:47:36,640 --> 00:47:38,280
which you can still visit.
578
00:47:38,280 --> 00:47:44,680
So, for me, this take me from the highways and byways of England
579
00:47:44,680 --> 00:47:49,080
to the Imperial Capital of the British Raj.
580
00:47:49,080 --> 00:47:53,640
An interesting little detail I've just noticed is that on the metalwork of the gates,
581
00:47:53,640 --> 00:48:00,000
you have the Tudor rose of England alternating with the lotus,
582
00:48:00,000 --> 00:48:02,200
the symbol of Hindu India.
583
00:48:08,880 --> 00:48:13,880
'Lutyens was an extraordinary man, able to work in an astonishing range of forms,
584
00:48:13,880 --> 00:48:16,960
'drawing inspiration wherever he found it.'
585
00:48:21,560 --> 00:48:25,760
'Here in New Delhi, I believe that he struck exactly the right note,
586
00:48:25,760 --> 00:48:29,880
'mixing imperial pomp with its Mughal and Hindu heritage.'
587
00:48:32,880 --> 00:48:36,440
The thing I find really extraordinary is that Lutyens,
588
00:48:36,440 --> 00:48:41,880
who was capable of designing exquisite relatively small gardens and light fittings
589
00:48:41,880 --> 00:48:48,480
and kitchen surfaces, could simultaneously be designing this vast imperial city.
590
00:48:53,240 --> 00:48:57,120
'Lutyens incorporated parks, avenues and trees into his design
591
00:48:57,120 --> 00:49:01,960
'for New Delhi, not only making it a beautiful green city, but also a cooler one,
592
00:49:01,960 --> 00:49:07,440
'providing shade and lowering the temperature of the centre by several degrees.
593
00:49:07,440 --> 00:49:12,680
'I think New Delhi is a masterpiece and despite being created as a statement of Imperial power,
594
00:49:12,680 --> 00:49:16,360
'it is an honourable inheritance from the British Raj.'
595
00:49:16,360 --> 00:49:19,640
'The irony of new Delhi is that by the time it was completed
596
00:49:19,640 --> 00:49:22,360
'in the early thirties, it was almost redundant.'
597
00:49:22,360 --> 00:49:26,760
Within 10, 15 years, the British Empire in India was over
598
00:49:26,760 --> 00:49:30,080
and it became just another piece of its past,
599
00:49:30,080 --> 00:49:35,280
like the Red Fort behind me built by Shah Jahan, the builder of the Taj Mahal.
600
00:49:35,280 --> 00:49:40,120
That is a symbol of the lost Mogul Empire, and through the gardens,
601
00:49:40,120 --> 00:49:42,840
I've just seen the way that cultures come and go
602
00:49:42,840 --> 00:49:46,840
and they adopt and absorb each other and that's how they survive.
603
00:49:46,840 --> 00:49:49,840
It's like the streets, where different colours and creeds
604
00:49:49,840 --> 00:49:55,840
and religions all mingle in this chaos, but somehow seem to be remarkably tolerant.
605
00:49:55,840 --> 00:49:59,800
But, before I leave India and before I finish this journey,
606
00:49:59,800 --> 00:50:05,560
I'd love to see a modern garden and to see where India possibly is going to.
607
00:50:06,560 --> 00:50:09,880
'And so, I'm making one final journey,
608
00:50:09,880 --> 00:50:14,680
'catching the 8.30 express from Delhi heading north to Chandigarh,
609
00:50:14,680 --> 00:50:17,480
'in the foothills of the Himalayas.'
610
00:50:19,640 --> 00:50:23,040
'I'm off to visit a garden famous not just for its completely
611
00:50:23,040 --> 00:50:29,480
'unique beauty, but also for the incredible story of its creation.
612
00:50:29,480 --> 00:50:34,480
'This is 25 acres of labyrinthine, sculpted gardens.
613
00:50:34,480 --> 00:50:38,360
'It is a bizarre and magical vision of modern India.'
614
00:50:47,880 --> 00:50:52,280
'The Rock Garden of Chandigarh is the creation of a single man,
615
00:50:52,280 --> 00:50:56,520
'who started building it in the 50s in a clearing in the jungle,
616
00:50:56,520 --> 00:51:01,040
'using just stones and waste material, without telling a soul.'
617
00:51:06,360 --> 00:51:13,560
This is all the waste, they look like broken loos, actually, and basins as much as anything.
618
00:51:13,560 --> 00:51:17,720
See, that's from a urinal, says he, touching it!
619
00:51:20,400 --> 00:51:22,920
These are old insulators, aren't they?
620
00:51:22,920 --> 00:51:24,720
They're beautiful.
621
00:51:24,720 --> 00:51:26,920
And, presumably, these are water pots.
622
00:51:32,480 --> 00:51:35,120
'Created on land its maker didn't even own,
623
00:51:35,120 --> 00:51:39,080
'for years it was undiscovered, a totally secret fantasy.
624
00:51:39,080 --> 00:51:45,480
'But in 1971 it was finally stumbled upon and very nearly bulldozed.
625
00:51:45,480 --> 00:51:50,240
'But, to their eternal credit, the local authorities realised that it was a work of genius
626
00:51:50,240 --> 00:51:56,120
'and not only decided to keep it but gave its maker, Nek Chand, now an old man, their full support.'
627
00:51:56,120 --> 00:51:57,440
Why in this place?
628
00:51:57,440 --> 00:51:58,760
Why here?
629
00:51:58,760 --> 00:52:03,720
I knew this place no building will be erected at any time.
630
00:52:03,720 --> 00:52:06,480
This is open space.
631
00:52:06,480 --> 00:52:09,120
And why did you do it? What made you do this?
632
00:52:09,120 --> 00:52:14,920
Because whenever I saw the material lying on the ground,
633
00:52:14,920 --> 00:52:18,480
on the roadside, behind the hotels and restaurants,
634
00:52:18,480 --> 00:52:22,160
I used to collect these things on my bicycle.
635
00:52:22,160 --> 00:52:26,240
- So you gathered all the materials on your bicycle?
- Yes.
636
00:52:26,240 --> 00:52:29,120
That must have been quite a job.
637
00:52:29,120 --> 00:52:34,280
It was hard work, my job was also hard work
638
00:52:34,280 --> 00:52:40,080
and this...to bring the stones from the hills,
639
00:52:40,080 --> 00:52:42,600
it is also a very difficult job.
640
00:52:42,600 --> 00:52:47,800
And you have people, I imagine, from all over the world coming here.
641
00:52:47,800 --> 00:52:52,880
Did you ever imagine that would be the case when you were quietly making this garden?
642
00:52:52,880 --> 00:52:56,160
Never, I never imagined it.
643
00:52:56,160 --> 00:52:57,840
What a life!
644
00:52:57,840 --> 00:52:59,520
It is a god gift.
645
00:53:07,200 --> 00:53:13,360
'I bet people thought, "Oh, there's that mad bloke again, riding around collecting all his rubbish,"'
646
00:53:13,360 --> 00:53:16,800
and they didn't know that secretly
647
00:53:16,800 --> 00:53:20,560
he was creating this stony jewel
648
00:53:20,560 --> 00:53:23,760
in the middle of the jungle. I mean, how romantic is that?
649
00:53:23,760 --> 00:53:27,640
That's the best garden story in the history of the world.
650
00:53:32,400 --> 00:53:38,520
'The visitor to this garden enters into a private fantasy world, linked by narrow passageways
651
00:53:38,520 --> 00:53:42,040
'and deep gorges, twisting through its maze-like structure.'
652
00:53:44,160 --> 00:53:46,200
Look at that.
653
00:53:47,200 --> 00:53:50,080
Look at that, look at that!
654
00:53:52,280 --> 00:53:56,000
'Everything is strange. Everything is a delight.
655
00:53:56,000 --> 00:54:00,960
Everywhere you look, there is something extraordinary and something that assaults you
656
00:54:00,960 --> 00:54:02,880
and challenges preconceptions
657
00:54:02,880 --> 00:54:05,000
and that is what this garden is doing,
658
00:54:05,000 --> 00:54:10,840
every little twist and turn, you think, "Wow, what's going on there?"
659
00:54:20,200 --> 00:54:23,160
I love it, I love it, I love it.
660
00:54:45,760 --> 00:54:52,520
You see this type of thing is really good, broken...I don't know what, stone bosses, all different sizes,
661
00:54:52,520 --> 00:54:58,160
put irregularly on a path. Now, all conventional logic
662
00:54:58,160 --> 00:55:01,240
says either space them evenly, or put them to one side,
663
00:55:01,240 --> 00:55:07,720
but I like the fact that you have got to negotiate your way and pay attention!
664
00:55:29,800 --> 00:55:31,320
Whoa!
665
00:55:32,360 --> 00:55:37,880
My theory is that gardening is grown-ups going outside to play,
666
00:55:37,880 --> 00:55:43,120
and if you garden in the same spirit as you went out when you were a child, on a lovely summer's day
667
00:55:43,120 --> 00:55:46,000
and made camps and played cowboys and Indians or whatever
668
00:55:46,000 --> 00:55:50,800
and ran around, and then came in all hungry and had your tea,
669
00:55:50,800 --> 00:55:54,480
then A) you'll enjoy gardening more, and B) the gardens will be better.
670
00:55:54,480 --> 00:55:57,440
And this exemplifies that.
671
00:56:05,680 --> 00:56:09,440
See, look at that man there holding his cup.
672
00:56:09,440 --> 00:56:15,400
And others holding old cups... And he's made out of cups.
673
00:56:18,000 --> 00:56:22,680
And here we seem to have most of Indian wildlife.
674
00:56:22,680 --> 00:56:26,760
We've got macaques, and we've got leopards or tigers.
675
00:56:26,760 --> 00:56:29,400
And poor old skinny elephants,
676
00:56:31,120 --> 00:56:33,400
it's really good fun.
677
00:56:35,560 --> 00:56:39,280
Can you think of a better way of recycling
678
00:56:39,280 --> 00:56:41,880
than making it into beautiful art?
679
00:56:43,720 --> 00:56:47,360
It should be compulsory - do something beautiful with your rubbish.
680
00:56:52,400 --> 00:56:55,560
I've just been overwhelmed and delighted by this garden,
681
00:56:55,560 --> 00:57:01,000
I've just loved it and it seems to me a perfect modern image
682
00:57:01,000 --> 00:57:05,880
that represents India and humanity beautifully
683
00:57:05,880 --> 00:57:10,320
and it's one of the most pleasurable gardens
684
00:57:10,320 --> 00:57:14,320
I've ever visited, and I think one of the great gardens of the world.
685
00:57:16,120 --> 00:57:20,200
'I said, at the beginning of this journey, that I was a bit daunted.
686
00:57:20,200 --> 00:57:22,560
'The extremes of India seem so shocking,
687
00:57:22,560 --> 00:57:26,520
'and its life force so fierce that I wondered how I would cope.
688
00:57:26,520 --> 00:57:30,760
'But I have been completely seduced by the place.
689
00:57:30,760 --> 00:57:34,120
'Through its gardens, I have had an intoxicating taste
690
00:57:34,120 --> 00:57:38,760
'of its plants, people, history and landscape.
691
00:57:38,760 --> 00:57:41,480
'From the paradise gardens of the Mughal emperors,
692
00:57:41,480 --> 00:57:45,880
'to private pieces of tame jungle and the patterned landscapes of the tea gardens,
693
00:57:45,880 --> 00:57:51,440
'India is the most life enhancing place that I have ever visited.'
694
00:57:51,440 --> 00:57:54,240
And to finish in this garden,
695
00:57:54,240 --> 00:57:56,480
which is modern,
696
00:57:56,480 --> 00:58:01,160
based entirely on humanity, on one man's vision
697
00:58:01,160 --> 00:58:04,680
and yet visited and shared literally by millions every year,
698
00:58:04,680 --> 00:58:07,920
seems to me a great symbol for modern India.
699
00:58:07,920 --> 00:58:12,520
And I leave not remotely daunted, but full of hope.
700
00:58:17,480 --> 00:58:20,800
Next time, my travels will take me to the continent
701
00:58:20,800 --> 00:58:25,680
with the most diverse climate, plant life and landscapes on the planet.
702
00:58:25,680 --> 00:58:29,960
A land almost twice the size of Europe - South America.
703
00:58:49,960 --> 00:58:52,960
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
704
00:58:52,960 --> 00:58:55,840
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