Plum Village, a Buddhist retreat... near Bordeaux

You might think you are in Nepal or Thailand as you enter Plum Village, but in fact you will be in the South West of France.

The “Village des Pruniers” is spread over four main hamlets and four smaller ones situated in three bordering departments, Dordogne, Gironde and Lot-et-Garonne and is dedicated to Buddhist teachings.

The Village was founded in 1982 by Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese refugee who arrived in France in 1969 and who taught at the Sorbonne before establishing the Village, which has since become the biggest and the most active Buddhist monastery in Europe with over 200 resident monks and nuns.

It is named after 1,250 plum trees which belong to the community. Their fruit is sold to raise money for children in Vietnam who don’t have enough to eat.

Buddhist monks and nuns live in Plum Village but it is also open to visitors who wish to experience, learn about or practise Buddhism. Every year there are more than a thousand visitors from all over the world. If you live locally you can go for just one day, but you can also stay there for a couple of weeks or even months.

At present the community is practising its Winter Retreat which is a traditional monastic practice dating back to the time of the Buddha. It lasts until February 12 and for 90 days the monks and nuns to not leave the monastery, but every year hundreds of lay practitioners join them.

This year their spiritual leader, Thich Nhat Hanh or Thay as he is also called was able to be with them for the opening ceremony. He is now 90 years old and since suffering a stroke in 2014 has been in a wheelchair, but his teachings still form the basis of the village’s philosophy.

He teaches mindfulness, peace-making and community building and Martin Luther King called him “An apostle of peace and non-violence.”
www.plumvillage.org