22-25 Allanton.indd - world peace prayer society

ALLANTON
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AT PEACE
WITH
THE
WORLD
Caroline Uchima tells Carol Hogarth how
the universal prayer for peace on earth
inspired her to establish Allanton World
Peace Sanctuary near Auldgirth, the
European base of the World Peace Prayer
Society and home of an annual
International World Peace Festival
Photography by Phil Rigby
‘M
Glenda Thornton, Slawomira
Majewska, Caroline Uchima, Uma
Uchima and Ayako Akasaka
ay peace prevail on earth’. It’s a simple wish; a
universal prayer which lies at the heart of everything
that happens at Allanton World Peace Sanctuary
near Auldgirth.
It’s also the message that inspired Glaswegian teacher Caroline
Uchima to volunteer for the World Peace Prayer Society during
her 20 years in Japan and to go on to establish the society’s
European base at Allanton.
“The society has a place on the side of Mount Fuji in Japan.
You can’t imagine it unless you go there, to sit among all these
pure people; wee old ladies, who have gone there because they
want the world to change, they want peace. The purity of the
Japanese people, and their genuine wish for that to happen,
inspired me,” she explains.
Caroline met her Japanese husband, Uma Uchima, while she
was running an English school there and the couple raised three
children: Clare, Rosa and Jamie.
As she became more involved with the World Peace Prayer
Society, Caroline learned it was searching for a new European
base which it wanted to establish before the start of the new
millennium, complementing the existing centres in Japan
and America.
Caroline suggested to her Dumfriesshire-based friend Zvonko
Kracun how wonderful it would be if the society found a
European base in Scotland. He found details of several properties
in Dumfries & Galloway, which Caroline forwarded to the heads
of the society. ➨
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Caroline Uchima, who established the World Peace Prayer Society’s European base, in one of the Allanton workshop rooms
“They were looking for somewhere
that already had a beautiful, soft, peaceful
feeling. They visited Allanton and that
was it. There was no doubt this was
the place.”
The society invited Caroline to move to
Allanton to help set up the sanctuary and,
although she knew it would be a challenge
to bring three half-Japanese teenagers to
Scotland and introduce them to a new
education system and culture, while Uma
remained in Japan for several years to
complete business, she took the plunge.
Rebuilt in 1907 after it had been
reduced to a shell by fire, the mansion
house was privately owned before being
sold to the Verona Fathers, an Italian
mission, who ran it as a boys’ home
during the 1960s. It then had a series
of short-term owners and was a bed
and breakfast business before Caroline
moved in.
“It was in bad nick. There was no
furniture, just a broken chair in my office;
that was it. I lived in one room with the
kids. It was cold, dark and we were a
bit scared.
“There was dry rot and it needed a new
roof. For the first few years we seemed to
live constantly in rubble and dust.”
Despite its physical limitations,
Caroline says Allanton always had a good
feeling and visitors with connections to its
past confirmed this: “We’ve had people
‘The programme
teaches children that
their thoughts, words
and actions make
a difference to
themselves, others
and the world’
getting quite emotional about it, saying
their grandmother used to be the scullery
maid here, or their grandfather the
gardener. We’ve had ‘old boys’ from when
the mission had it, who have lovely stories
and say they were so happy here. It’s full
of good memories.”
After years of restoration work, and
the installation of a biomass boiler for
heating last year, Caroline finally feels
ready to actively promote Allanton as a
venue for visiting groups and workshops,
meetings and conferences.
“It’s taken us until now to get it to
where we feel confident about inviting
people to do workshops and residential
courses,” she says.
Three large, light, airy ground floor
rooms are perfect for a wide range of
activities – including yoga, arts, crafts and
music – and three attractive first floor
dormitories, plus additional bedrooms
and an outside bothy, sleep 30 people
and make the most of open views of
the 18 acres of grounds and surrounding
countryside.
Various groups have enjoyed Allanton’s
hospitality in recent years, including
Italian students, a young people’s ‘music
jam’ and the society’s Japanese and
American visitors.
“We’ll consider hosting any kind of
activity or workshop that would be
beneficial for people and has an empathy
with our basic ethos; respecting the fact
this is a peace sanctuary,” says Caroline.
After years of travelling back and
forward, Uma finally moved to Allanton
permanently six years ago and, with his
impressive culinary skills, he caters for
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Staff member Glenda Thornton, right,
and visitor Ayako Akasaka
Chef Uma Uchima and Slawomira
Majewska preparing lunch
Uma Uchima with one of the peace poles he makes for the society
staff, volunteers and groups at the house
and reinforces the society’s Japanese
cultural roots.
Uma is also responsible for producing
Allanton’s Peace Poles: 1.8m poles, made
from ‘upcycled’ durable plastic with the
“May peace prevail on earth” message
printed on them in a choice of languages.
Schools, community groups and
individuals can buy and plant peace poles
and more than 250,000 have been planted
across the world since the society’s project
began in 1976.
Glenda Thornton, who first visited
Allanton in 2000 and is now one of four
full-time staff members, including
Caroline and Uma, is largely responsible
for the society’s education programme for
primary schools. She has worked with
numerous UK schools, helping them to
incorporate the “experience of peace” into
school life, leading to an “ethos of peace”
throughout the school. The programme
teaches children that their “thoughts,
words and actions make a difference to
themselves, others and the world”.
The fourth staff member, Jessica
Shackleton, has been involved with the
sanctuary since 1999 and her main
domain is the grounds and walled garden,
where much of the produce used in
Allanton’s kitchen is grown; where
volunteers and friends – informally or in
organised groups – come to work, and
‘They were looking for
somewhere that already
had a beautiful, soft,
peaceful feeling. They
visited Allanton and that
was it. There was no
doubt this was the place’
where the annual International World
Peace Festival is staged.
The highlight of Allanton’s year, the
festival has grown from a couple of
Japanese visitors, Caroline and her
children in 1998 to up to 400 visitors
enjoying the spectacle of the World Peace
Flag Ceremony and a range of music,
Fairtrade goodies, storytelling, free
activities and demonstrations. They leave
The Flag Ceremony at the 14th World
Peace Festival in 2012. Photo by Zvonko Kracun
“inspired, uplifted and hopeful”,
according to Caroline.
This year’s festival on June 29 –
sponsored by Dumfries & Galloway
Council, Scottish Natural Heritage, the
NHS, Rotary and Lions clubs – celebrates
the Year of Natural Scotland, linking with
various wildlife and conservation
organisations, community groups and
featuring a 26ft model railway.
Allanton’s extensive grounds
incorporate a labyrinth for meditative
walks and a thatched, wattle and daub
roundhouse built by master thatcher Jem
Cox. More than 1,000 native trees have
been planted in a children’s woodland and
future plans include developing a “quiet,
peace walk” for the public and visitors to
enjoy, and a forest school, helping children
“connect with and appreciate nature”.
Jessica and Caroline have been training
for the past two years to become Forest
School Leaders and Penpont Primary
School pupils attended a six-week pilot
last year.
“What delights me is that members of
the community are seeing the potential
here,” says Caroline. “We are being
accepted by mainstream organisations
which see how we can work together.
“I feel we are going to become busier
and busier. We have the capacity to
welcome more and more people for more
projects, and the more people who can
come here the better. That’s us fulfilling
what we are here for.
“We have done our foundation work
and now we are ready.” D&G
■ The World Peace Prayer Society is an
all-inclusive, non religious, non political
international organisation, recognised by
the United Nations as an NGO (non
governmental organisation) which works
with the UN in its mission for realising
world peace. Founded in 1955 by Japanese
teacher, philosopher and poet Masahisa
Goi, who dedicated his life to peace and
humanity, it aspires to “a world in which
all different races, ethnic groups, religions,
cultures, customs and all forms of life are
respected”. See www.worldpeace-uk.org
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