Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c5.s2.t1.4

v1.c5.s2.t1.4

Bodhi trees and their leaves from India were often offered as tribute or presents. *Juan* 54 in the *Book of the Liang Dynasty* recorded that the Panpan kingdom dispatched envoys to present true relics and painted pagodas of the Bodhi kingdom and offered bodhi leaves and the plant Lindera thunbergii Makino in August of the sixth year of the middle Datong (534 CE). The *Old Book of the Tang Dynasty juan* 198 recorded that King Silajita of Magadha sent envoys to offer fire balls, tulips and bodhi trees in the 15^th year of Zhenguan. According to the *General History of Chinese Buddhism*, monks of Kaibao Temple returned from India and offered Sanskrit sutras, a pagoda of Buddha’s relics, bodhi leaves and peacock tail brushes in March of the third year of Taipingxingguo (978) of the Northern Song Dynasty. Similarly, the *sramana* Guangyuan of Chengdu, on his return from the western paradise, went to the royal house of the prince of western India named Motunangbiao to offer as presents a seal of the Buddha’s head crown (skull bone relic), palm tree leaves and leaves of the Bodhi tree in December of the seventh year of Taipingxingguo (982 CE). Indian monks, including Niweini, came to China and offered to the court Buddha’s relics, Sanskrit sutras, bodhi leaves and bodhi prayer beads in the first year of Xianping in the Northern Song Dynasty (998 CE). The monk Mulasiji from Kashmir is also recorded as having offered Sanskrit sutras and bodhi leaves in March of the second year of Jingde (1005); while five years later, the Indian monk Juejie came to China and brought relics, palm-leaf scriptures, a genuine *bodhimanda* and bodhi leaves in the third year of Dazhongxiang. Huaiwen who had gone to the West three times, returned from the Indian kingdom of Magadha bringing fragments of the Buddha’s bone, *pattra*-leaf sutras, *pattra*, bodhi leaves, ashoka leaves, bodhi prayer beads and 19 texts based on the monument of the western paradise.