What Tree Is the Bodhi Tree? An Up-to-Date Introduction to Bodhi Tree Knowledge
The Bodhi tree is a large tree of the genus Ficus in the tribe Ficus of the family Moraceae, also known as the thinking tree. Legend has it that more than 2000 years ago, the Buddha Shakyamuni attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. In India, whether Hinduism, Buddhism or Jainism, all regard the Bodhi tree as a “sacred tree”, and the government even implements “national treasure-level” protection for the Bodhi tree. With the spread of Buddhism to China, the Bodhi tree has also had a profound influence in China.
When young, the Bodhi tree grows as an epiphyte on other trees, reaching 15-25 m tall, with a diameter at breast height of 30-50 cm. The bark is gray, smooth or slightly longitudinally striated, and the crown is widely spreading. The branchlets are grayish brown, sparsely pubescent when young. The leaves are leathery, triangular-ovate, dark green and glossy on the surface, green on the underside, abruptly acuminate at the apex, with the tip extended into a tail-like point, broadly truncate to shallowly cordate at the base, entire or undulate, with three basal veins and 5-7 pairs of lateral veins. The petiole is slender, jointed, equal to or longer than the leaf blade. The stipules are small, ovate, acute at the apex.
The fig is spherical to oblate, 1-1.5 cm in diameter, red and smooth when mature. There are 3 basal bracts, ovate, and the peduncle is about 4-9 mm long. Male flowers, gall flowers and female flowers grow on the inner wall of the same fig; male flowers are few, borne near the opening, sessile, with the perianth 2-3-lobed and involute, 1 stamen, and short filaments. Gall flowers are stalked, with the perianth 3-4-lobed, the ovary smooth and spherical, the style short, and the stigma swollen and 2-lobed. Female flowers are sessile, with 4 perianth segments, broadly lanceolate, the ovary smooth and spherical. The style is slender and the stigma narrow. The flowering period is March-April, and the fruiting period is May-June.
The Bodhi tree prefers light, high temperatures and high humidity. It grows rapidly at 25°C, and the temperature in winter should be around 12°C. It is not tolerant of frost, has strong pollution resistance, and is not demanding about soil, but fertile, loose, slightly acidic sandy loam is best. Young forests grow rapidly in tropical areas (areas with sufficient water). In China, it is mostly cultivated in Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan, and it is also distributed in Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal, Pakistan and India, mostly also under cultivation, but in the Himalayan region from Rawalpindi in Pakistan to Bhutan it is wild.
The Bodhi tree has moderate resistance to sulfur dioxide and chlorine gas, and strong resistance to hydrofluoric acid. It is suitable as a greening tree species in polluted areas, and is an excellent ornamental tree species, suitable as a greening tree species for courtyards and roadside plantings. The milky sap flowing from the branches and trunk can be used to extract hard rubber, the branches and leaves can be used as feed for elephants, cattle and other livestock, and the heartwood and sapwood of the wood are not clearly distinguished, making it suitable for cutting boards, packing box boards and fiberboard raw materials. Moreover, the Bodhi tree is a traditional Chinese medicine for treating asthma, diabetes, diarrhea, epilepsy, stomach diseases and more, and it also has significant effects against cancer, cardiovascular diseases, inflammatory neurological diseases, neuropsychiatric diseases, parasitic infections and so on.
In India, every Buddhist temple is required to plant at least one Bodhi tree, and great attention is paid to the “bloodline” of the Bodhi tree, with direct descendants of the sacred Bodhi tree from the time of the Buddha's enlightenment being held in the highest regard. According to Hinduism, the Bodhi tree is an incarnation of Vishnu, one of the three principal gods of Hinduism, and therefore has particularly important religious significance. Hinduism also holds that the Bodhi tree is where the gods live, and that Vishnu and his wife, the goddess Lakshmi, reside in the Bodhi tree on the dark night of the first day of each month. Vishnu lives in the roots, Lakshmi lives in the trunk, Narayan lives in the branches, King Hari lives in the leaves, and all the gods live in the fruit of the Bodhi tree.
With the spread of Buddhism to China, the Bodhi tree has also had a profound influence in China. In the early years of the Tang Dynasty, the monk Shenxiu conversed with his senior fellow disciple Huineng and wrote the verse “The body is a Bodhi tree, the mind is like a bright mirror stand; wipe it diligently all the time, and let no dust settle there.” After reading it, Huineng wrote back a verse: “Bodhi is originally no tree, nor is the bright mirror a stand; originally there is not a single thing, so where could dust ever settle?” This exchange between the two fellow disciples, using objects to express meaning and discussing the Way through objects, spread widely and also made the Bodhi tree greatly renowned.