The Story
The Peace Dome has a bright history; created to keep the Peace Flame alive.
Over the years, many flames have been lit from it so that the Peace Flame now burns all over the world.
About The Flame
In 1945, after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on 6th August which killed approximately 140,000 people, a man named Tatsuo Yamamoto collected some of the embers from the devastation. His grandmother then kept the fires burning on her Buddhist altar, before which she prayed every day, morning and night. It was a flame of love for her family who had died in the nuclear holocaust.
Thirteen years later, a newspaper reporter, hearing of the long-burning flame, wrote an article about it in the daily press and in 1968 a 'Peace Flame Monument' was inaugurated. Since then the flame has been held as a symbol of protest against the testing and deployment of nuclear weapons and as a powerful symbol of peace.
Our flame was brought to the Glastonbury Festival in 2004 by Japanese sound artist Hiroki Okano and English musician Nigel Shaw.
Since then, it has formed the centrepiece of the Peace Dome in the Kings Meadow sacred space at the festival, as well as at other festivals such as the Green Gathering, Sunrise, and at various community events in Glastonbury.
About The Dome
The Peace Dome was founded in 2004, when Hiroki Okano from Japan, Guillermo Martinez from South America and Nigel Shaw from the UK brought the Hiroshima Peace Flame to the Kings Meadow sacred space at the Glastonbury Festival.
We created the Peace Dome as a universal sacred space, dedicated to the sacred in all things, to offer people the opportunity to sit, meditate and pray with the Peace Flame.
The Dome itself is a beautiful, geometric shape, rather like a huge crystal. Within it, we houe the central Peace Flame in a Merkabah or star tetrahedron to expand the energy. Beneath the Peace Flame sits a large record-keeper quartz crystal, in a flower-filled bowl of Chalice Well and White Spring water. Around this, we create a flame mandala based on the Flower Of Life geometry, and also using rose quartz and selenite crystals. This is inside an outer hexagon, surrounded by an octagon of mats and cushions.
At Glastonbury, the Dome is open 24 hours a day throughout the entire Festival, mostly silent but also using crystal bowls, gongs, chanting and spoken prayer. Each evening at dusk, there is a mandala lighting ceremony.
The Peace Flame is used as part of the Opening Ceremony to light the fireworks and central fire in the Stone Circle.
Over the years, we have had many adventures and it is a major honour and blessing to be given such an opportunity. to help hold the sacred space.
As well as Glastonbury Festival, the Peace Dome has featured at the Green Gathering, Sunrise, at many events in Glastonbury, and now also Medicine Festival in 2024.