A garden designed to bring peace and harmony to the Chelsea Flower Show is at the centre of a row after accusations that it flouted basic principles of feng shui.

Three Chinese students complained about the Through the Moongate garden after being “shocked by serious flaws” and “some very bad feng shui”.

Officials from the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), which runs the prestigious flower show, were investigating the claims yesterday.

The students said the design, believed to be the first Chinese garden at Chelsea, committed three serious offences against the principles of feng shui.

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A statue of a dragon, a powerful symbol in Chinese culture, was facing north, rather than east.

The positioning of a carving of Buddha’s name close to the ground was regarded as disre-pectful – it should have been higher – and a statue supposedly of Buddha was in fact a representation of some other deity or person, the students said.

An RHS official said the complaint was being taken seriously and that the society would “take a dim view” if it found a “lack of appreciation of Chinese culture and respect for Buddha”.

The official said that the graduate students who had made the complaint had been “very shocked” at what they regarded as disrespectful treatment of feng shui and Buddha.

The Canadian-born designer Lesley Bremness was astounded by the complaints and struck back by branding her accusers ignorant.

The former set designer for Top of the Popsis a herb specialist who has spent 20 years studying the “philosophy of the Chinese garden” and said that the Chelsea show garden was intended to appeal to Eastern and Western tastes.

To help to achieve an authentic design two garden experts, Wang Guixiang, of Tsing Hua University in Beijing, and Yo Shuxun, of the Beijing Botanical Gardens, provided advice.

While Through the Moongate incorporates both the spirit of Yang and the calm of Yin it is intended to be more a reflection of Taoism than feng shui.

She accepted, however, that the dragon in her garden was facing northwards but that she had had little choice because of the site the RHS had allocated her.

“Our garden has switched around from what the original plan was. You have to go with what the RHS gives you,” she said. “The dragon is facing out. It’s protection for the garden.”

The designer dismissed the accusation that she had got the wrong Buddha statue. She said it was of Quanyin, the Chinese goddess of mercy and compassion, and that it was always supposed to have been of her.

Similarly, she denied any disrepect by placing the name of Buddha on a tablet on the ground close to the statue.

Ms Bremness added: “Some traditional Buddhists would like to have her higher but I can apply Western interpretations in the design.

“It’s not Buddha, it’s Quanyin. That’s very ignorant of them. She is in the perfect situation for her – she is gazing at the lotus flower, a sacred flower.

“Buddhism is a very deep and complex subject. For someone to say that [this is disrespectful] is unknowledgeable.”

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