Budha Eden in Portugal. The garden of peace

Budha Eden is part of Quinta dos Loridos a winery that produces mostly sparkly wine for the main brand.
In it, you can find Budha Eden a 35 hectare oriental garden with Buddhas, pagodas, terracotta statues and modern art.
Living in Portugal we have long been seeing photos of this place and curious as to the reason for even building such a garden. Turns out it was built as a reaction to the destruction of the Buddhas of Banyan two 6th-century monumental statues of Gautama Buddha carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan. The statues were blown up and destroyed in March 2001 after the Taliban government declared that they were idols.

Budha Eden
We were staying in Lisbon and after some days of urban sightseeing we felt our son needed some space, we could have gone to one of the many nice gardens in Lisbon but this time we decided to take the opportunity to cross this off our list and boy are we happy we did so. The garden is very large and in the ticket office we learned it had a train that we could opt for, as soon as our son heard train the decision was made we would start with a train ride.
As we took the train we went to the farthest end of the garden to make our way back and during that short ride we were already impressed by the size of the place and the statues, we read that some six thousand tons of marble and granite were used to create this and it shows, everything here is colossal.
There are different areas and the place we started of was very relaxing with lots of shade, small little statues and details and a very meditative relaxing atmosphere to it. Going around this part we are again facing the large lake and the impressive main entrance, we took the main road through some of the terracotta statues and set out for the amphitheatre and the Xian terracotta warriors, here the sun was already starting to make the visit hard so we stopped in the coffee for something to eat and drink before resuming the tour. The last two places where the African sculptures and the staircase of Buddhas before taking the train yet again to the main entrance, all in all taking most us almost till closing hours to get back.
As you could probably tell this place is large, very large and even with the help of the train, you'll be walking a lot here unless of course you just forget about everything and just relax in one of the many areas, something that I would love to do if I were to visit this place again. Take a blanket and lay down on the grass near the lake.


For families
Our 4 year old loved it as he had space to run around and lots to see, but I do imagine that teenagers will find this to be boring and not really their type of outing.

Where to stay?
This place is really close to some of our favourite spots like Óbidos, Alcobaça, Peniche, Caldas da Rainha or Nazaré, so you have plenty of choices in creating your own little short program while staying in this region.


Visits
Every day except 1st January and 25th of December
Opening Hours 09.30am to 6.30pm daily (Entrance gate closes at 6pm)