The Bodhi Tree and Buddhism

Long ago, in the northern Indian state of Bihar, in the small town of Uruvela, a young man sat beneath a fig tree searching for a solution to the suffering of humankind which he saw all around him. Sometime, in the wee hours of the night he was able to reach a mystical place known as Nirvana, or the place of enlightenment. After his visit to this mystical place, the young man spent the rest of his life teaching others the lessons he learned under that fig tree. His message has spread across the world an developed into one of the great world religions. And it all began as he sat alone one night under a lonely tree which would have the destiny of becoming the Bodhi tree.

This article is written as an overview of the historical events that took place at this sacred site, and also as a guide for those who may wish to take a pilgrimage.

It is said that Siddartha Gautama was born to the life of a prince. He belonged to a Hindu family who lived in northern India. He was raised in the life of luxury and as was custom of the time he married young. As he matured he had a change of heart about the way things in life should be. He began to notice the suffering of those around him. When he reached his early thirties he renounced the life he had been living, and became a wandering monk.

In his 36th year, he happened to be wandering through the town of Uruvela. He stopped to rest in the shade of a fig tree and decided that he would not move from that spot until he had reached enlightenment. Because he chose that spot to sit, underneath that fig tree, the very event of reaching Nirvana has made that piece of ground sacred.

Over the next 40 years this man who now called himself Buddha or the enlightened one, wandered through the Ganges Valley teaching people and gathering disciples. Finally, in his 80th year he passed away. But the message he taught survived and traveled and spread until it is now considered one of the great world religions.

When Buddha's modern disciples return to Bohd Gaya they will find a fig tree in the same spot Buddha once sat. This is the Bodhi tree, though it is not the same tree that once gave shade to a tired and wandering monk, thought that tree stood into the third century when the Emperor Asoka's daughter, Sanghamitta, broke a branch off that tree and carried with her to Sri Lanka. There she planted the branch, and it grew into a Bodhi tree, the descendant of the first.

It is fortunate she had the foresight to plant a descendant tree, for legend has it that the wife of Emperor Asoka became jealous over the amount of time the Emperor sat meditating under the sacred tree and destroyed it. But the tree grew back. Whether it grew as a sprout from the roots of the destroyed tree or if it was replanted from a cutting taken from the tree in Sri Lanka is the focus of many stories. Pilgrims who came to this tree carried seeds or cuttings home with them to plant in Buddhist monasteries around the world. And so the descendants of the sacred Bodhi tree traveled, put down roots and grew, just as the message Buddha learned under the tree.

Though the stories vary, the facts remain that the Bodhi tree that now stands at that sacred spot is not Buddha's actual tree, but a descendant of it. Over the ages many trees have grown, died for various reasons and been replanted in that spot. The Bodhi tree that stands today was actually planted in 1881 by a British Archaeologist after the previous one had died of old age several years before.

According to legend, Buddha remained sitting under that tree for seven days following his enlightenment. At the end of the seven day Buddha began walking meditation. Today, one may follow the path Buddah walked in the second week as it has marked with 19 lotus trees. This path is known as the Jewel Walk.

In the third week he sat and contemplated the Bodhi tree. The spot where he sat to contemplate is currently marked by the Animeschalochana Stupa.

Modern pilgrims can sit beneath the Bodhi tree to meditate. They can walk along the Jewel Walk and meditate. And they can sit ay the Animeschalochana Stupa and contemplate. Others choose to hang flags or leave offerings in the cavities of the stone railings that surround the tree. All come in search of spiritual connection.