name given to the tree at Bodh Gaya
under which the Buddha sat
on the night he attained enlightenment. The tree itself
was a type of fig with the botanical name Ficus religiosa.
In the centuries after the Buddha, the Bodhi tree became
a symbol of the Buddha's presence and an object of worship.
King Asoka's daughter, the nun
Sanghamitta, took a cutting of the tree to Sri Lanka where
it still grows in the island's ancient capital of Anaradapura.
original at Bodh Gaya was destroyed by King
Puspyamitra during his persecution of Buddhism
in the 2nd century BC and the tree planted to
replace it, probably an offspring, was destroyed
by King Sassanka at the beginning of the 7th
century AD. The tree that grows at Bodh Gaya
today was planted in 1881 by a British archaeologist
after the previous one had died of old age a
few years before. Many temples throughout the
Buddhist world have Bodhi trees growing in them
which are or are believed to be offspring of
the one from Anaradapura and their worship forms
an important part of popular Buddhist piety.
Barua, Gaya and Bodh Gaya. Calcutta,
Vol. I, 1931, Vol II, 1934.
S. Dhammika, Navel of the Earth. Singapore,