George Nakashima with wood for the Peace Altar, for St. John the Divine, 1980s,
photography by Jack Rosen, courtesy of James A. Michener Art Museum
The Altars of Peace are large tables that George Nakashima intially fashioned from a 300 year old tree*. His dream was to have a "Peace Altar" on each continent, as
"a symbol, a token of man's aspirations for a creative and beautiful peace, free of political overtones; an expression of love for his fellow man."
The first Peace Altar was made from the bole of a walnut tree, two adjoining six-foot wide slabs twelve feet long and weighing almost one ton. It was consecrated and installed at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City in 1986. The second Peace Altar, built from the same black walnut tree to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations, was presented at The Hague Appeal for Peace in May of 1999 and is now at its permanent site in the Russian Academy of Art in Moscow. And the third Altar, built in 1996, stands in the "City of Peace" Auroville, which sprang from the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry where George Nakashima was once a disciple.
George Nakashima was 81 when the first Peace Altar was dedicated. He passed away in 1990. Mira Nakashima, George Nakashima's daughter and the current head of The Nakashima Studio, is working to fulfill her father's vision.
[excerpts of this article courtesy of "George Nakashima: At peace in nature" by Janet Purcell from The Area Guide, A publication of the Bucks County Herald]
