tree worship in asia
The Buddhist Tree of Wisdom has four boughs from which flow the rivers of life, and the sacred tree of Buddhism is the Bodhi or Pipal tree because it was under such a tree that Siddhartha Gautama (b. 566 BC) meditated and gained enlightenment.
The enormous respect and veneration for trees in India has produced a great variety of tree myths and traditions.In India, the ghosts of brahmans are believed to live in Fig trees awaiting liberation or reincarnation, and the voluptuous Vrikshaka represents a tree nymph. Asoka, the Buddhist emperor of India (268-232 BC) erected 36 stone pillars -- one of which in Besnagar in Central India represents the Cosmic Tree.
In Japan, the Cryptomeria tree is venerated at Shinto shrines, and a sacred tree is the Sakaki from which a branch becomes a sacred central post in building shrines.
To the Chinese, the Peach tree is sacred, every part of it holding great symbolism. Peach wood possesses the power to ward off evil spirits, and the peach fruit is believed to endow immortality -- if only in a long, tranquil and prosperous life.
The Chinese also identify sacred trees as symbols of renewal. Their Tree of Life, the Kien-Luen, grows on the slopes of Kuen-Luen.
In China, tree patterns decorated the garments of pubescent girls, and most popular was one of phoenixes and pheasants sitting on or flying around an Otung tree which links more with Central Asian rather than Chinese beliefs.
Because of its location between Europe and Asia, and its fame for producing beautiful rugs, Turkey has retained traces of ancient beliefs in carpet patterns which tie its culture with those of Central Asiatic tribes. Mostly decorated with tree patterns,Turkish prayer rugs (namzliks) reveal a pre-Islamic origin, showing the tree as the center of life.
In Turkey today, particularly in the eastern parts, childless women make a pilgrimage to a solitary tree to tie cradles and dolls to its branches. Childless Kazakh women make a similar pilgrimage, offering a sheep; and Yakut women spend a night under a Larch tree in order to conceive. Uzbek women believe a fruit tree acts as the symbol of fertility and in Erzurum, and in other parts of Turkey, the apple tree is revered.
Siberian Turks believed the tie between a man and a tree is like an umbilical cord. When an old tree dies, an old man dies and when a young tree dies, a young man dies -- and the human spirit returns to the tree. The Kazaks and the Turkmen believe in a tree in heaven, every leaf of which belongs to someone on Earth. When babies die, Siberian Turks once wrapped them in birch bark and hung them on trees believing that babies belong to nature.
Turkic people believe that trees are the ancestors of human beings In the mythology of the Oghuz people, two trees, a golden one and a silver -- metaphors for the Sun and the Moon -- are mentioned as ancestors. Trees were also used by Siberian and Central Asian shamans in consecration rites. The Yakuts believed their shamans were trees, referring to limbs as branches.
The Tuva and Altai tribes believed trees were conscious of pain and like humans they slept at night and died as we do; and the Huns of the Northern Caucasus sacrificed horses to the Sacred oak.
All of these tree myths are represented by patterns on carpets, stones and jewellery. There are representations of trees with fruits shaped as human, and the spread of this motif is connected with the expansion of Turkmen tribes in Central Asia in the 10th century.
The enormous respect and veneration for trees in India has produced a great variety of tree myths and traditions.In India, the ghosts of brahmans are believed to live in Fig trees awaiting liberation or reincarnation, and the voluptuous Vrikshaka represents a tree nymph. Asoka, the Buddhist emperor of India (268-232 BC) erected 36 stone pillars -- one of which in Besnagar in Central India represents the Cosmic Tree.
In Japan, the Cryptomeria tree is venerated at Shinto shrines, and a sacred tree is the Sakaki from which a branch becomes a sacred central post in building shrines.
To the Chinese, the Peach tree is sacred, every part of it holding great symbolism. Peach wood possesses the power to ward off evil spirits, and the peach fruit is believed to endow immortality -- if only in a long, tranquil and prosperous life.
The Chinese also identify sacred trees as symbols of renewal. Their Tree of Life, the Kien-Luen, grows on the slopes of Kuen-Luen.
In China, tree patterns decorated the garments of pubescent girls, and most popular was one of phoenixes and pheasants sitting on or flying around an Otung tree which links more with Central Asian rather than Chinese beliefs.
Because of its location between Europe and Asia, and its fame for producing beautiful rugs, Turkey has retained traces of ancient beliefs in carpet patterns which tie its culture with those of Central Asiatic tribes. Mostly decorated with tree patterns,Turkish prayer rugs (namzliks) reveal a pre-Islamic origin, showing the tree as the center of life.
In Turkey today, particularly in the eastern parts, childless women make a pilgrimage to a solitary tree to tie cradles and dolls to its branches. Childless Kazakh women make a similar pilgrimage, offering a sheep; and Yakut women spend a night under a Larch tree in order to conceive. Uzbek women believe a fruit tree acts as the symbol of fertility and in Erzurum, and in other parts of Turkey, the apple tree is revered.
Siberian Turks believed the tie between a man and a tree is like an umbilical cord. When an old tree dies, an old man dies and when a young tree dies, a young man dies -- and the human spirit returns to the tree. The Kazaks and the Turkmen believe in a tree in heaven, every leaf of which belongs to someone on Earth. When babies die, Siberian Turks once wrapped them in birch bark and hung them on trees believing that babies belong to nature.
Turkic people believe that trees are the ancestors of human beings In the mythology of the Oghuz people, two trees, a golden one and a silver -- metaphors for the Sun and the Moon -- are mentioned as ancestors. Trees were also used by Siberian and Central Asian shamans in consecration rites. The Yakuts believed their shamans were trees, referring to limbs as branches.
The Tuva and Altai tribes believed trees were conscious of pain and like humans they slept at night and died as we do; and the Huns of the Northern Caucasus sacrificed horses to the Sacred oak.
All of these tree myths are represented by patterns on carpets, stones and jewellery. There are representations of trees with fruits shaped as human, and the spread of this motif is connected with the expansion of Turkmen tribes in Central Asia in the 10th century.
Labels: asia, bodhi, buddhism, cryptomeria, fig, kien-luen, larch, otung, reincarnation, sakaki, siddhartha gautama, tree nymphs, tree worship, turkmen
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