The Bureau Multinational Expositions (BME), a private organization from Bhutan, was declared the bronze winner for the Garden Exhibition at Chengdu, organized by the Chengdu International Horticulture Exhibition, Chengdu City, People’s Republic of China. The exhibition was open to the public for 186 days from 26th April 2024, and the closing ceremony was held on 28th October 2024. Over a park size of 242 hectares (242,000 meters square), 23 countries, including Bhutan, participated in this event. More than 7.5 million visitors visited the site.
Based on the overall theme, “Park City, Beautiful Habitat,” the participants, who were represented by various countries, were asked to create their own masterpieces to showcase the garden, from design to construction and landscaping. They had to complete the construction within the given timeline and even name the garden with their own theme.
The Bureau Multinational Expositions, the participant from Bhutan, proposed the design of the garden based on its country’s unique tradition and culture, rich biodiversity, and harmonious coexistence with nature. According to the organizer from BME, they have come up with the entire show with a Bhutanese traditional set-up consisting of two traditional houses, two canopies, two small wooden bridges, one prayer wheel, and three conventional gates with Bhutanese architecture and paintings. The facelift of the garden was then added by planting ornamental flowers and trees native to Bhutan with a small water pond at the front without distorting the existing landscape.
According to BME, it is intended to make any visitors visiting their site feel solace just by seeing the entire garden at a glance, and one can immediately draw some inspiration from the first sight. Therefore, they kept the name as the Garden of Happiness with the theme, “Your heaven for inspiration and reflection.”.
On October 28, 2024, during the Closing Ceremony, BME was declared a Bronze Winner among 23 international participants. BME said that they were very humbled by receiving the Bronze Award. The traditional set-up at the garden the relevance of its theme and the title of the garden could be the main factors for qualifying as the Bronze Recipient. They added that more than anything, they were satisfied since they could gain lots of wisdom and artistic skills from such an event, which is very useful for coming up with their beautiful park elsewhere. Besides, the International Expo means lots of other opportunities where one can foster friendship, share artistic skills, and develop business relations. BME invited the Horticulture Association of Bhutan as their special invitee during the Closing Ceremony.
