Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c5.s2.t1.1

v1.c5.s2.t1.1

The Bodhi Tree is a kind of arbor from the species *ficus microcarpa* of the Moraceae family of plants, and its scientific name is *Ficus religiosa*. The Sanskrit name of the bodhi tree is *pippala*, which is transliterated in Chinese as Biboluo (毕钵罗, 卑钵罗 and 庫钵罗). It is said that the Sakyamuni was enlightened on the Diamond Throne under a bodhi tree outside Gaya, Magadha (in present-day Bihar, India). The tree was called bodhi, and its free translations were ‘the tree of the Way’, ‘enlightenment tree’, ‘bodhimandala tree’, ‘thinking tree’, etc. ‘*Juan*’ 8 of the Chinese work *Traveling Notes on the Western Regions in the Great Tang Dynasty* recorded that the original bodhi tree had a yellowish white stem and green leaves, and that it did not wither away, but thrived both in winter and summer. When the Buddha lived, the tree was supposed to have been one hundred *chi*¹ in height, and its height was four or five *zhang* even after having been cut several times. Kings in later generations conducted Buddhist ceremonies around the Bodhi tree, and collected its leaves as auspicious relics, while many Chinese monks who visited India to seek Dharma, including the famous Xuanzang, visited the holy relic of the tree. Envoys from China in the reign of Zhenguan of the Tang Dynasty displayed sacrificial offerings and "kasayas" (robes worn by monks) in the temple beside the tree. Tang envoys also erected a monument in the temple in the 5ᵗʰ Year of the Xian Qing reign (660 CE). *Juan* 18 in Book One of Duan Chengshi's *Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang* cites relevant passages from *Traveling Notes on the Western Regions in the Great Tang Dynasty*, as well as pointed out that there were two Sanskrit names of the bodhi tree, in which ‘阿湿曷吔娑力叉’ (*A shi he ta suo li cha*) was the transliteration of *Asvattha-vrksa* in Sanskrit.