Jedi Temple Meditation Garden

The Meditation Gardens of the Coruscant Jedi Temple were lush meditative retreats in which members of the Jedi Order could visit at any time of the day or night while at the Temple.

History
Seeing completion in the Temple no later then 1,000 BBY, the several meditation gardens that filled the Temple were beautifully maintained throughout the Order's history as places of relaxation and reflection.

Around 31 BBY Padawan Xiaan Amersu, a young Twi'lek girl whose Master had been slain by bounty hunter Aurra Sing, found amnesiac Jedi Quinlan Vos meditating on a bench beneath a great tree. Giving the Kiffar Jedi her Heart of Fire gemstone, Amersu told the Jedi that his Padawan, Aayla Secura, had given her the stone, which in turn had been a gift from Vos. Amersu though it right to give the stone back to Vos in hopes that he could use his psychometric abilities to read the stone and regain his memories of Secura. In doing so, Vos felt that he had regained some of his past and thanked the girl before swearing that he would indeed find Secura.

Several years later, during the Clone Wars, Master T'ra Saa brought the comatose former-High Council member Depa Billaba to a garden for healing. Master Mace Windu, Billaba's former master, visited the pair by the fish-filled pond and inquired as to why Saa even tried, for Windu was certain that Billaba would never wake. Saa stated that she would not give up, and her attempts at healing would heal her own wounds. Additionally, Jedi Anakin Skywalker would wait for Master Nejaa Halcyon in a grotto in one of the gardens as the latter had news to report on after a meeting with the High Council. Halcyon quickly arrived at the grotto to tell Skywalker they were being sent to Praesitlyn to oversee the defense of the Intergalactic Communications Center and capture Captain Zozridor Slayke.

At the end of the War, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, secretly the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious, ordered the Grand Army of the Republic to lay siege to the Temple and slaughter its occupants. The 501st Legion, led by Darth Vader raided the building and lay waste to much of its ancient architecture. The meditations were burned or merely left to crumble as the ancient structure was ruined and its occupants hunted down and murdered.

The Temple sat in the hands of the Sith for several decades, guarded by the trusted shadow stormtroopers of the Empire throughout the Galactic Civil War. When Sidious and Vader were slain, the Empire lost balance and was eventually driven from Coruscant and taken by the New Republic. During the Yuuzhan Vong War Coruscant was devastated by terraforming, causing the Temple to crumble completed, seeing the final destruction of the meditation gardens. Following the reclamation of the world, the Galactic Alliance Chief of State, Cal Omas, ordered the Reconstruction Authority to rebuild the ancient edifice as a gift for the great sacrifices made by the Order against the Yuuzhan Vong.

Reconstructed in the new Temple, the meditation gardens served the same purpose as they had several decades before. In 43 ABY Interim Grand Master Kenth Hamner summoned Jedi Leia Organa Solo, Jaina Solo, and non-Jedi Han Solo to the garden in the Tower of Reconciliation to meet with Chief of State Natasi Daala and her personal assistant Wynn Dorvan. During the meeting, Daala argued for the procurement of the maddened Jedi Seff Hellin and Natua Wan while Hamner argued that the Order was better equipped to treat the insane Jedi. Coming to a compromise, the Jedi agreed to make public apologies on the matter concerning the clandestine group Darkmeld, while Daala reluctantly agreed that the Jedi could house the two infected Jedi.

Layout
Situated on various levels of the Temple Ziggurat and within the four Council Spires, the meditation gardens were generally cool, sun-drenched chambers in which Jedi could meditate amongst the foliage and trickling streams. Filled with dense foliage and moist grottoes, benches lined dirt and stone paths that cut through the jungle-like chambers. In one of the gardens, a fish-filled pond connected to a sandy beach, while butterflies fluttered over the gently lapping waters.

On the rooftop of the Ziggurat were at least eight large gardens located in the architecture that jutted out from the pyramid of the Temple. Clerestories formed the ceilings of these gardens and access to the Ziggurat's broad rooftop plaza was gained through three broad doorways. In one of the gardens, a sandpit near a towering tree was filled with pink stones which were gently balanced upon each other, inducing a very calming atmosphere.

Appearances

 * Heart of Fire
 * Star Wars: Republic: Show of Force
 * Jedi Trial
 * Yoda: Dark Rendezvous
 * Star Wars Purge: Seconds to Die
 * Omen

Notes and references
Gärten der Meditation