A rock garden is a kind of Japanese garden that besides other Japanese garden attributes uses gravel or sand that is raked to represent ripples in water. A rock garden is otherwise called a Zen garden, as it usually serves meditation purposes. The sand or gravel patterns may be found in gardens surrounding Buddhist or Shinto temple complexes.

The garden around the Silver Pavilion in Kyoto >>>

An enclosure around a monastery at Mount Koya where we spent a night to get the experience of a Buddhist community >>>

Other characteristic features of Japanese gardens are arrangements of rocks, water features, moss (with no grass on it), pruned trees and bushes >>>.