Bodhi Tree - Friendship Tree, Landscape Tree

Li Yunkun/Wen

The Bodhi tree is a friendship tree. The Bodhi tree, when the Buddha had an epiphany, was destroyed when the Arabs invaded India. Previously, the branches of this linden tree were brought to Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka) and planted to live. This tree is called the "Holy Bodhi Tree".

Only a Bodhi tree that grows from the branches of the "Holy Bodhi Tree" is an authentic Buddhist Bodhi tree.

Yunnan is located in the southwest frontier of the motherland, close to the geographical location of Southeast Asian countries, and closely linked. In order to satisfy the wishes of the vast number of Buddhists to worship the Buddha, revere the Bodhi Tree, and promote the friendship between Yunnan and the Sri Lankan people and the Buddhist community, after consultations between the Buddhist Association of China, the Buddhist Association of Yunnan Province and the Buddhist community of Sri Lanka, an agreement was reached to donate three saplings of the Holy Bodhi Tree to the Buddhist Association of Yunnan.

From October 18 to 24, 2005, the Yunnan Buddhist Association formed a 108-member delegation to welcome the Holy Bodhi Saplings and made a special trip to amdapura Monastery, where the Sacred Bodhi Trees are located in Sri Lanka, to welcome the Sacred Bodhi Saplings. Sri Lanka has also set up an escort group of 11 senior monks and ministers in charge of the Buddha's teeth to welcome three saplings of the Holy Bodhi tree to the General Buddhist Temple in Xishuangbanna.

On May 1, 2007, the Shwedagon Pagoda of Menghuan in Dehong Prefecture was completed, which is the first pagoda of southern Buddhism in mainland China. Yunnan has enshrined one of the Bodhi trees in the northeast corner of the Menghuan Shwedagon Pagoda in Mangshi, Dehong Prefecture (Photo 1).

Figure 1

On June 18, 2008, another of the Bodhi trees was enshrined in the Great Buddhist Temple of Mengli in Xishuangbanna, and has grown so far that it is now covered with the devotions of Buddhist believers (Figure 2).

Figure 2

These three sacred Bodhi trees embody the friendship between the Chinese and Sri Lankan peoples.

In December 1985, Her Royal Highness Princess Ganlayani Wattana of Thailand planted a Bodhi tree at the Dai Royal Palace in Xishuangbanna (Figures 3 and 4).

Figure 3

Figure 4

From March 3 to 4, 1995, Princess Sirindhorn of Thailand visited Xishuangbanna and planted a Bodhi tree (Figures 5 and 6) at the Main Buddhist Temple, which has grown into towering trees, which also symbolizes the friendship between the Chinese and Thai peoples.

Figure 5

Figure 6

The Linden tree is tall, leafy, and has good shade, and is indeed a very good tree species in the tropics. A single Linden tree can even accommodate half a horse gang camping and resting under it. 100 years ago, the American anthropologist and botanist Joseph Rock came to Xishuangbanna, where he photographed a caravan of mabang under the Bodhi tree at man short Buddhist temple (Figure 7, Locke reproduced from "Old Photograph of Jinghong Landscape in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province, 1922").

Figure 7

The air roots of the Bodhi tree can hang directly to the ground and become another one after entering the ground, which allows the base of the Bodhi tree to wrap other objects and even buildings.

There is a Bodhi tree in Mangshi that has wrapped up the stupa and becomes a tree bag pagoda (Figure 8).

Figure 8

The Tree Bag Pagoda is a major attraction in Mangshi, and anyone who comes to Mangshi will definitely come here to see it.

Therefore, the pagoda is located in the former Sister Column Village, which is called "Guangmu Sister Column" in Dai. Translated into Chinese, it is the Iron City Pagoda.

According to Dai historical records, this pagoda was built during the Kangxi Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, and is said to have been built to commemorate a victorious war during the 15th Tusi Fang Dynasty.

The tower is a masonry structure, the tower pedestal is octagonal, the tower body is a beaded cone, about ten meters high. After the completion of the tower, another Bodhi tree grew in the cracks of the tower, and several degrees of wind and rain, the intertwined roots gradually wrapped the tower, forming the wonder of today's tree bag tower.

The Bodhi tree can also wrap around other trees.

In the downtown section of the main road, Mengli Avenue, the street trees are towering oil palms. The trunk of the oil palm tree is straight and upward, but its branches and leaves grow at the top of the tree, and the shading effect is not ideal. Gardeners planted linden trees under oil palm trees, which soon wrapped the trunks of oil palm trees to form a landscape of trees hugging trees (Figures 9 and 10), which not only beautified the city, but also increased the shade of the roads.

Figure 9

Figure 10

Jinghong City, the capital of Xishuangbanna, also has ancient bodhi trees (Figure 11), which not only add to the city's landscape, but also provide citizens with shelter from the wind and the sun.

Figure 11

The villages inhabited by the Dai people often plant a zhaixin tree in the center of the village, and the Bodhi tree is the most common zhaixin tree.

The village heart tree in Manhe Beng village in Jinghong City is an ancient Bodhi tree (Figure 12).

Figure 12

This tree is also the sacred tree in the village. The towering tree is surrounded by a rope and a warning sign (Fig. 13) reads, "Dai Family Sacred Place, No Entry."

Figure 13

At the base of the tree stands a golden shrine (Figures 14 and 15). Next to it there is a dai offering of a sacred tree.

Figure 14

Figure 15

In general, in Dai villages, there must be a well next to the tree in the heart of the village. The same is true of this village, next to the ancient Bodhi tree, there is also a spring, the amount of water is extremely large, the water is gathered into a pool, and a well pavilion is built on the pond (Figures 16 and 17), and the people of the village rely on this.

Figure 16

Figure 17

Mannongfeng Village is located in the Xishuangbanna Tourist Resort, adjacent to the Xishuangbanna Ethnographic Museum and the Mengli Great Buddha Temple. This ancient Bodhi tree has also become a major attraction in the scenic spot.