Bodhi Tree Talks

The Bodhi Tree (Sanskrit and Pāli: Bodhi meaning "awakening" or "enlightenment") is the specific Bo tree (from the Sinhala bo, derived from bodhi)—a sacred fig (Ficus religiosa)—located within the Buddhist Mahabodhi Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in Bodh Gaya, Bihar, India. According to Buddhist tradition, it was under a Bo tree located at this site that Siddhartha Gautama, the spiritual teacher who later became known as Gautama Buddha, or simply the Buddha, attained enlightenment, or Buddhahood, around the 5th century BCE. In Buddhist art and iconography, the Bodhi Tree is commonly depicted with its characteristic heart-shaped leaves, a feature of Ficus religiosa that has come to symbolize wisdom and spiritual awakening.

The original tree no longer survives, but its descendants have been venerated for more than two millennia. Over the centuries, the tree and its successors have undergone many episodes of destruction and renewal. Notable recorded incidents include its felling during the reign of Emperor Aśoka (c. 268–232 BCE), its destruction by Queen Tissarakkhā around 254 BCE, its damage or destruction during the persecution of Buddhism under King Puṣyamitra Śuṅga in the 2nd century BCE, and its later cutting down by King Śaśāṅka of Gauda around 600 CE. Yet each time, it was replanted from surviving saplings.

A sapling from the original Bodhi Tree was sent to Sri Lanka by Emperor Aśoka, with his daughter Sanghamittā Therī, in 288 BCE, and planted at Anuradhapura, where it survives today as the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi—regarded as the oldest living human-planted tree with a known date. The current Bodhi Tree at Bodh Gaya, planted in 1881 by British archaeologist Alexander Cunningham from a cutting of the Sri Lankan tree, continues to be one of the most revered pilgrimage sites in Buddhism.

From Bodhi tree on Wikipedia