The World
Peace Garden
A formation space for peacemakers
People of every faith tradition gather in one garden in one of the most sacred places on earth — to encounter one another, to share the practices of their tradition, and to go home equipped. Open to all. Free of charge.
WHAT IS ITA garden of encounter.
A chapel of formation.
The World Peace Garden is a living space — filled with music, dance, conversation, and the energy of people from across the world discovering each other across every difference. The Garden is where encounter happens.
At the heart of the Garden stands the World Peace Chapel — a sanctuary for prayer and a formation laboratory. Practitioners from the world's great faith traditions come here throughout the day to teach specific peacemaking practices drawn from their own lineages, tested across centuries, and offered to anyone ready to receive them.
The Commitment Wall - from 2027
The Chapel carries a Commitment Wall — where every participant leaves a written commitment to peace: a practice they will carry home, an intention they will hold, an action they will take. The wall grows across the days of the festival, becoming a living record of the community of peacemakers the Garden is building.
"The World Peace Garden is a place of solidarity. While we gather in beauty — in music, in dance, in the togetherness of this extraordinary festival — we carry in our hearts all those who are suffering because of conflict and war. This garden exists to say to them: we see you. We are thinking of you. We hold you in our prayers. And we are doing the necessary work — the interior work of formation — so that the world can be a better place. We are our brother's keepers. That is why we gather here."
— SWAADY MARTIN, FOUNDER OF THE WORLD PEACE GARDEN
WHERE IS THE GARDEN
Bali Spirit Festival —
a gathering with a purpose.
The Bali Spirit Festival was founded in 2008 in the aftermath of the Bali bombings of 2002 and 2005 — born from the conviction that bringing people together across cultures and traditions in a spirit of healing is itself a form of repair. Now in its eighteenth year, it draws three to four thousand people daily from across the world to the heart of Ubud.
The festival is rooted in Tri Hita Karana — the Balinese Hindu concept of living in harmony with the spiritual, the social, and the natural. A Hindu island in the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, saturated with Buddhist, Christian, Sufi, Sikh, and indigenous Balinese spiritual life.
The World Peace Garden was planted inside this festival because the conditions it creates are exactly right: thousands of serious seekers from dozens of countries, gathered in one of the most spiritually alive places on earth, already oriented toward inner transformation and encounter across difference.
THE PROGRAMThe Garden runs across the full duration of the Bali Spirit Festival, from early morning to late evening each day. The program unfolds across two spaces — the open Garden and the World Peace Chapel — each carrying a different quality of the same intention.
Every day includes recurring moments of silence for victims of wars, alongside workshops that give participants specific, practical tools for peacemaking in daily life. Youth voices are part of the program every year.
Prayer, formation,
music, movement, and encounter.
IN THE CHAPELPrayer and Formation
Formation sessions in peacemaking practices
Christian contemplative practices and prayer
Islamic prayer forms across the day
Buddhist meditation and LovingKindness
Hindu chanting and devotional practice
Sustained silence for victims of wars
IN THE GARDENEncounter and community
Devotional music — Sikh Kirtan, Tabla, Sufi Kirtan, Gospel, Kora
Movement — Dances of Universal Peace, Bhangra, somatic peacemaking
Talks — becoming a peacemaker, Rumi's wisdom, Buddhist perspectives
Workshops — repairing relationships, resolving conflict, reconciliation
Youth voices and youth offerings
Community and open encounter across traditions
✝ Christian
☪ Muslim
🌀 Sufi
☬ Sikh
☸ Buddhist
🕉 Hindu
🌿 Indigenous
🌍 All are welcome
✝ Christian ☪ Muslim 🌀 Sufi ☬ Sikh ☸ Buddhist 🕉 Hindu 🌿 Indigenous 🌍 All are welcome
THE THEME FOR THE NEXT WORLD PEACE GARDEN 2027Blessed are the peacemakers.
MATTHEW 5:9The 2027 World Peace Garden gathers under a theme that every wisdom tradition has carried in its own language — the understanding that peace in the world begins with the person who has been genuinely formed in it. The Quran calls them the mufsidun fil-ard, the reformers of the earth. The Buddhist tradition speaks of the bodhisattva who works for the liberation of all beings. The Hindu tradition honors the shanti sevak, the servant of peace. The Christian tradition names them peacemakers and calls them children of God. The words differ. The call is the same.
To become a peacemaker is to be formed from within — to carry a quality of peace that has been cultivated through practice, sustained through community, and expressed outward into every relationship one inhabits. Every session, workshop, formation offering, and prayer in 2027 will be oriented around this question: what does each of our traditions teach about how that becoming happens, and what practices make it possible in daily life?
CO-FOUNDERS OF THE WORLD PEACE GARDEN, SWAADY MARTIN & SUMEENA GUPTASome of the practitioners who have brought their tradition to the Garden.
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Pak Muhammad Nur Jabir
WRITER, THINKER, DIRECTOR RUMI INSTITUTE
Rumi's spiritual Journey
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Babaji
FOUNDER OF THE BALI GURDWARA (Sikh Temple), SPIRITUAL, TEACHER, KIRTAN SINGER
World Peace Sikh Kirtan
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Punnu Wasu
SPIRITUAL TEACHER, KIRTAN, HOLISTIC HEALING
Kirtan for Peace
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Phra Suthep Sirimethanon
THERAVADA BUDDHIST MONK, DHAMMAKAYA TEMPLE, THAILAND
Inner Peace for World Peace Meditation, Dhammajakkappavattana Sutra
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Bulakorn Thanatharo
THERAVADA BUDDHIST MONK, DHAMMAKAYA TEMPLE, THAILAND
The life of a Buddhist monk at Wat Phra Dhammakaya, Thailand
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Dr. Ravinjay Kuckreja
RELIGION PROFESSOR
Tat Tvam Asi: Realizing Peace Through the Upanishads
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Dek Gunarta
ENTREPRENEUR, CO-FOUNDER OF THE YOGA BARN, YOGI’S GARDEN & OTHERS
Building ecosystems for Peace
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Malaika Darville
SHAMANIC PRIESTESS, MENTOR
Nurturing family harmony
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Ishaan Gowda
STUDENT
A Youth Manifesto for World Leaders
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Kamau Abayomi
SPIRITUAL GUIDE, INTERDISCIPLINARY ARTIST
Walking the Way of Ma'at towards Peace
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Richard Quinn
SPIRITUAL TEACHER IN THE BAHA’I FAITH
The sublime purpose of human life
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Manuela Sauter
BUDDHIST PRACTITIONER, YOGA TEACHER, SOUND HEALER
The Botany of Peace: A Buddhist Perspective, The secrets of the Heart sutra
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Dr Mahmoud Tiema
DOCTOR, ENTREPRENEUR, TEACHER
Muslim & Sufi Teachings for Peace, Sufi Zikhr
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Samier Mansur
AUTHOR, COACH, ENTREPRENEUR
A Christian sermon on Peace
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Juan Manuel
CEREMONIALIST, FACILITATOR
AYNI: The Andean Way of Sacred Reciprocity
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Purnama
SONGWRITER, CEREMONIALIST, MUSIC MEDICINE
Balinese Peace Wisdom: A Balance between the Light & the Dark
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Raghavendra
TABLA MUSICIEN
Tabla Peace Musical Journey
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Jhoty Singh
SPIRITUAL & LIFESTYLE COACH, BHANGRA DANCE TEACHER
Bhangra Dance Workshop
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Celym Darsoulant
CULTURAL STORYTELLER, MUSICIAN
Enchanted Kora Experience -
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Pak Dave
AUTHOR, PHILANTROPIST, PRIEST IN THE HINDU BALINESE TRADITION
Ahimsa in action
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Kerry Clancey
SPIRITUAL AND LIFE COACH, REIKI GRANDMASTER, MASTER SOUND HEALER, AUTHOR
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Mutaz Al Qasim
SPIRITUAL TEACHER, ENTREPRENEUR
99 Names of Allah
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Swaady Martin
SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR , FOUNDER, DIVINE INDWELLING
Lectio Divina · Christian Rosary Prayer
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MonAxi Kimball
SINGER, PERCUSSIONIST, SONGWRITER AND PRODUCER
Solace & honor for the displaced: A candlelit tribute to all victims of wars & conflicts
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Ambrita Sunshine
TEACHER, PRANIC HEALER, BUDDHIST PRACTITIONER
The healing power of love
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T-Bird Luv
INTERDISCIPLINARY ARTIST
Musical Peace Salon
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Daria Miloslavskaya
MUSICIAN, VOICE COACH
Sufi Kirtan for Peace, Activation & Heart Peace Circle
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Eva Aourah
MUSICIAN
Crystal Harp & Cosmic Sound Recital: Sacred resonance for peace
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Jitesh Patel
COACH
Repair: The Skill No One Taught Us
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Quisha Saunders
TEACHER
Be the Peace, Reflection of Christian Scripture
TESTIMONIALS