The
oldest living continually documented tree in the world
 Many sacred trees in India and other
countries are originally raised from seeds brought from the ancient Bodh
Gaya tree (Photo on the right shows the entrance to the tree shrine). A shoot of the original Bodhi tree was taken to Sri Lanka in the
3rd century B.C. by Bhikkhuni Sangamitta, daughter of the Buddhist emperor Ashoka.
The
Lankan king Devanampiya Tissa planted it at the Mahavihara monastery in
Anuradhapura where it still grows to this day. The event was documented in
the the Mahavamsa or the Great
Chronicle of the Sinhalese.
It is also recorded that forty Bodhi-saplings that grew from the
seeds of the original Bodhi-tree at Anuradhapura were planted at various places
in the island during the time of Devanampiya Tissa himself. It has been a custom
for every Buddhist monastery in the island to have its own Bodhi-tree.
Nowadays the tree has become a familiar sight in Sri Lanka, and it is
possible that all were derived from the
original tree at Anuradhapura through seeds. No one know whether or not the
Bodhi tree (Ficus religiosa) was indigenous before the introduction
of the Anuradapura tree, as this cannot be proved or disproved.
Below you find a couple of brief and
extremely readable extracts left to us by James
Ricalton, who visited the tree in 1891. James was a much-loved
teacher in Maplewood, USA, whose great passion was traveling all over the
world. He also played a part in the physical enlightenment of our houses.
Thomas Edison, a local friend of James, asked him to search
the Far East for a bamboo filament to use in his new electric light bulb. He
delivered hundreds of samples to Edison, together with his recommendation for
the two species he felt most suitable. For nearly nine years (until Edison
discovered something better), all Edison lamps were made with the bamboo
filaments that Ricalton discovered.
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ANURADHAPURA - "More than a hundred years before Tsin-Shee Hwang-Tee had set his millions of
laborers at work on the great wall of China, ancient Anuradhapura was a
flourishing city and the capital of Lanka, as the island was called by the
ancients. It was a youthful contemporary of Babylon and Nineveh, greater than
either in territorial area, and was in its glory and amplitude when Rome and
Carthage were young".
The Sacred Bo-Tree of Lanka
(The oldest historical tree in the world having stood for more than 2130 years)
From a photograph by James Ricalton.)
"For a time I become a pilgrim myself, and join their number, that I may
witness the object of their devotion as wonderful to me as it is worshipful to
them. We reach the uppermost of three successive terraces of masonry, which is
crowned by the multiple trunk of a venerable tree. The several divisions of this
tree are feeble, gnarled, and bent; the leaves lack the fresh verdancy of a
vigorous growth, and plainly show the yellowish pallor of decrepitude. The soil
that nourishes its roots is wellnigh saturated with the oil of its anointment;
yet, bent with age, this patriarch spreads its protecting arms over the jaded
devotees, while they deposit beneath it and around it their offerings of
coconut-oil, palm-blossom, champac flowers, and the bloom of the temple-tree
(frangipani). Then their eager gaze is turned upward to the branches; they crave
a single leaf, but none would dare pluck it from the tree; it must fall in full
maturity to yield its maximum of merit. I had travelled nearly a hundred miles
to look upon this wonderful tree, and was also anxious to carry away a specimen
of its sacred leafage. A passing breeze sways the branches; the leaves rustle;
the watchers gaze more expectantly; a withered member is separated from its
branch and comes sailing down. There is no whoop of exultation, no trifling
smile; but instead, a determined sally, a pious scramble, a collision of zealous
hands and heads, and the solitary leaf is borne away in the happy bosom of the
successful competitor. The prizes were few and the competitors were many, so I
could only hope to secure one by remaining till the pilgrims, at nightfall, had
turned their steps homeward, which I did; but even then robed monks remained to
guard this holy of holies.
As if, however, to reward my patience, two leaves fell at my feet, whereupon,
well satisfied, I turned away from a tree that is enshrined in the hearts of
four hundred millions of the human family, and which is, in all probability, the
oldest historical tree in the world; and when I tell the reader that it has been
dropping its consecrated leaves into the outstretched hands of pilgrims for two
thousand one hundred and thirty years, he will, I trust, pardon a desire on my
part to carry away a memorial."
by James Ricalton in 1891
The stone surround and steps leading to
the ancient
Anuradhapura Bodhi or Bo-Tree in modern days. Note the many prayer flags
hanging in the foreground.
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