Sri Maha Bodhi - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi is a Sacred Fig

Sacred Fig

The Sacred Fig, Ficus religiosa, or Bo-Tree , Peepal is a species of banyan fig native to India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, southwest China and Indochina...

tree in Anuradhapura

Anuradhapura

Anuradhapura, , is one of the ancient capitals of Sri Lanka, famous for its well-preserved ruins of ancient Lankan civilization.The city, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, lies 205 km north of the current capital Colombo in Sri Lanka's North Central Province, on the banks of the historic...

, Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

. It is said to be a sapling from the historical Bodhi tree

Bodhi tree

The Bodhi Tree, also known as Bo , was a large and very old Sacred Fig tree located in Bodh Gaya , under which Siddhartha Gautama, the spiritual teacher and founder of Buddhism later known as Gautama Buddha, is said to have achieved enlightenment, or Bodhi...

under which Buddha

Gautama Buddha

Siddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...

became enlightened. It was planted in 288 BC

288 BC

Year 288 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Tremulus and Arvina...

, and is the oldest living human-planted tree

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

in the world with a known planting date.

It was planted on a high terrace about 6.5 m (21.3 ft) above the ground and surrounded by railings, and today it is one of the most sacred relics of the Buddhists

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

in Sri Lanka and respected by Buddhists all over the world. This wall was constructed during the reign of King Kirthi Sri Rajasingha, to protect it from wild elephant

Elephant

Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...

s which might have damaged the tree.

History

The tree is said to be the southern branch of the Sri Maha Bodhi

Bodhi tree

at Bodh Gaya in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

under which Buddha attained Enlightenment

Bodhi

Bodhi is both a Pāli and Sanskrit word traditionally translated into English with the word "enlightenment", but which means awakened. In Buddhism it is the knowledge possessed by a Buddha into the nature of things...

.

In the 3rd century BC, the Buddha's fig tree was brought to Sri Lanka by the Thera Sangamitta (Pali

Páli

- External links :* *...

; Skt.

Sanskrit

Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

: Sanghamitra), daughter of Emperor Asoka and founder of an order of Buddhist nuns

Bhikkhuni

A bhikkhuni or bhikṣuṇī is a fully ordained female Buddhist monastic. Male monastics are called bhikkhus. Both bhikkhunis and bhikkhus live by the vinaya...

in Sri Lanka.

In 249 BC, Siri Maha Bodhi was planted in the Mahameghavana Park in Anuradhapura

Anuradhapura

by King Devanampiyatissa.

External links

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