A New Nepalese Rudraksha Grove

The amazing blue fruits of the Rudraksha tree.

Closeup of a basket of partially cleaned Rudraksha seeds from the Elaeocarpus Ganitrus tree

These are the saplings (in the foreground) as they arrived from Kathmandu, before they sprouted.

After a year, they grew to two feet tall and healthy. They like Kauai’s climate.

A field was cleared and mowed, and fences installed to keep the cows away. Then last week we planted 15 Nepalese trees which will be a future miniature forest we are calling a grove.

To make their transition to full sun easier, we placed red ti plants to provide shade at the hottest time of the day.

In the future we will have the original Indian Rudraksha Forest here, and just 80 feet away pilgrims can walk among the Nepalese trees

We published a major story about the growing and marketing of the rudrakshas of Nepal which you can read by following this QR code. Regale your friends with these fascinating details.

Consider the cosmic rhythm of creation, preservation and dissolution. Much of what we do in life is by way of maintaining what was created in the past. Housekeeping, equipment maintenance, mowing the lawn, washing the clothes. Now and again we get to create something special (which will need maintenance far into the future!)

This week we created a new little forest of Rudraksha trees from Nepal. Just 15 trees, so we call it our Nepalese Rudraksha Grove. The seed for this was sown some 2-3 years ago when we did a major article on the Rudrakshas of Nepal. We flew Nikki Thapa from Kathmandu to the deep Khandari Valley that lies just 33 miles from Mount Everest. The story was fascinating, full of facts like Rudraksha sales represent 6% of Nepal’s GNP, and the rather stunning fact that the most expensive single bead every purchased on auction went for $84,000 (it had 33 faces, so one in a billion). Nikki sent us a handful of beads from that valley, and we were amazed how distinctive they were, bigger, lighter in color and even more ornately “carved” than the Indian beads.

So we flew Nikki back to the valley with the mission to acquire 18 small trees which—after nurturing them in her home for the winter—she packed and shipped to Kauai. They grew slowly at first, but when they realized where they were they took off and became lush and healthy. They were ready to get out of their pots, so we cleared a portion of our cow pasture, put up fencing to keep the cows from making them bovine salad, dug 15 holes (three did not make the journey) and planted them in our finest plant mix. They are settling in, happy to be out near their comrades, the Indian Rudrakshas. In the future pilgrims can visit two rudraksha forests from two nations, and the Mini Mela will have a new offering for pilgrims, grown on the Aadheenam grounds. So, having created a sacred space for future pilgrims, we settle in to mowing the field, fertilizing the saplings, mending the fences and so it goes. Create, maintain, dismantle. Take a breath and repeat.

This photo shows the color difference between the darker ruddy brown of the Indian bead and the lighter khaki brown of the Nepalese beads. Only usually the Nepali beads are larger than their Indian brethern.