Human history under the bodhi tree.

More than 2,000 years ago, a branch from an especially important tree was extracted at the behest of Indian king Ashoka the Great. It is located right under the tree where the Buddha is believed to have been attained.

Ashoka imprinted the crown on the tree and planted it in a jar of fine gold, then lifted the branches to the mountains and led down the Ganges to the Bay of Bengal.

There, the princess took her on board the ship, bringing Sri Lanka to the king of the country. Ashoka loved the tree so much that he was so tiny when he saw that it was taken away.

This story, taken from the epic The Mahavamsa of Sri Lanka, refers to the bodhi tree, which scientists call Ficus religiosa. As its name implies, the bodhi tree connects with the past for thousands of years, even before Ashoka.

But bodhi is not the only tree. It is just one of more than 750 different species in the genus. No tree is more powerful than the supernatural in manipulating the human imagination.

It appears in every major religion, affecting kings, queens, scientists, and soldiers. They played a role in the evolution of mankind and in the dawn of human civilization.

Statue of Buddha at Rock Temple, ie Rangiri Dambulla Rajamaha Viharaya Temple in Dambulla, Sri Lanka

These trees not only see history but also shape history; If properly recognized, they may even make our future richer.

Most of the flowering plants have bloomed for the world to admire, but the plants belonging to the genus conceal the flowers inside the hollow fruit. And while most of the trees are rooted to the ground, the strangler figs show them on the top.

The sticky tree is an interesting plant, growing from the seeds of birds, animals and other animals on the tree. By blooming from the top of the dense jungle instead of the darkened ground, the seedlings cling to have the necessary light to thrive.

In the process of development, they grow long roots from the ground down, and the roots are becoming increasingly thick, hardened, covering and turning the host into a living 'prey'. They can even strangle, kill large host plants, and thrive, into tall pillars.

Two countries have used the fig tree to decorate the badge.

In Indonesia, this tree symbolizes the unity of diversity, the intricate roots of the numerous islands that make up this country.

In Barbados, it was inspired by the Portuguese explorer Pedro a Campos who was greeted by his boat in 1536. He saw many fig trees living along the coast of the island. The plant is named Ficus citrifolia. Large bunches of reddish-brown roots sprang from the branches and looked like twisted hairbrushes. A Campos named the island Los Barbados - "long bearded island".

Over 300 years later, British biologist Alfred Russel Wallace explores islands on the other side of the Earth. He said the live figs he had seen on his eighty-year-long odyssey journey across the Malay Archipelago were "extremely unique trees in the forest." Their overcoming of obstacles to existence inspired them to develop the theory of evolution by natural choice, a theory completely independent of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

But the clam was rooted in human minds long before European explorers began their journey on the sea.

Let's look at the Ashoka the Great Bodhi. Buddhists, Hindus and Jains (a kind of Indian-derived religion) have worshiped this plant for over two thousand years.

Bodhi tree also appeared in the war of the Brahmins 3,500 years ago.

And over the next 1,500 years, the bodhi tree appeared in legends, in the art of civilization of the Indus Valley Civilization.

People in India dug trees into solid bridges

In other parts of Asia - that is to say, throughout the tropics and subtropics, cultures have taken banyan trees, trees as power symbols, and places for people to come. praying.

These plants appear in narratives, in folklore, and in reproductive rituals.

The most revered is the Indian Bodhi tree (Ficus benghalensis), which can grow to be so reminiscent that it looks like a small forest.

Indian bodhi tree can grow very large because their roots drop from the branches that can join together into pillars, as strong as the oak trees, supporting the giant branches of the tree, allowing the The branches grow longer, and then continue to drop more roots.

There is a Bodhi tree in Uttar Pradesh which is said to be immortal. Another plant in Gujarat is thought to have grown from a baby's to a baby toothbrush. Another tree, a third tree, is said to have sprung up when a woman lacerated in the fire to cremate her late husband's corpse. This plant, which grows in Andhra Pradesh, is large enough to accommodate 20 thousand people.

The first Europeans to enjoy the shade of the Bodhi Tree were Alexander the Great and his army of warlords, who arrived in India in 326 BC.

Their tales of this tree quickly reach the earliest Greek philosopher, Theophrastus, who laid the foundations for modern botany.

He studied the fig tree for the edible fruit, the fig tree, whose scientific name is Ficus carica. Theophrastus noticed that tiny beetles came out in the fig tree. This has become one of the most interesting discoveries in biology.

More than 2,000 years have passed until scientists discover that each species has its own pollinator, and some species even have two such 'special' insects. . Similarly, each species can only lay eggs in the flowers of certain species.

This relationship began more than 80 million years ago, and it has shaped the world ever since. Ficus species must ensure fruit throughout the year to ensure the survival of pollinated beetles. This is great for fruit eaters who find it hard to find food for most of the year. Actually, the figs help to maintain and maintain the existence of many animals in the natural life than any other fruit.

There are more than 1,200 different species of animals that eat figs, including one tenth of all birds in the world, nearly all known fruit bats, and dozens of species Chief. In turn, these animals also help to disperse the seeds to other places. Therefore, ecologists have called the "principal resources". And like the rock of a bridge, if the fig tree disappears, everything else is destroyed as well.

The fig tree not only helps to nourish the animal. The ripening of the fruit throughout the year may also help ensure the survival of human ancestors in the early stages.

Figs that contain a lot of energy may have helped our ancestors to grow bigger. It is hypothesized that our hands evolve as a powerful tool to evaluate whether the fruit is soft, ie sweet enough, nutritious, or energy to eat. Figs are among the first fruits that humans have tamed thousands of years ago.

Egyptian goddess Hathor emerges from the fig tree to welcome the pharaohs' souls into the afterlife, according to the ancient Arabs.

Ancient Egyptians tamed a fig tree called Ficus sycomorus, a plant in which insects pollinate it either extinct, or have never been present in that land. The fig tree would not have been able to produce a fig. But farmers have found a way to 'trick' the tree by using a knife blade on the tree.

Before long, the fig tree was a major source of Egyptian agriculture. Farmers even trained the monkeys to climb fruit trees.

The fig tree in Egypt is both food and nourishing religious beliefs. The Egyptian kings, Pharaoh, brought dried figs to their grave to help the king's soul on the journey to the other side of the world. The kings believed that the goddess Hathor would emerge from a mystical fig tree to welcome them into paradise.

From north to east, the sweet relatives of Egyptian wild figs (F. carica) have become an important food of some ancient civilizations.

The Urukagina of the Indian River Basin civilization wrote about this fruit nearly 5,000 years ago. King Nebuchadnezzar II planted them in hanging gardens of Babylon. King Solomon of Israel praises them in a song. The ancient Greeks and Romans said the fruit was the fruit of heaven.

The attractiveness of this fruit may be explained by another important point. In addition to the juicy, they also have high fiber, vitamins and minerals.

Fruit is rich in fiber, vitamins and minerals

These nutritional benefits have long been known. "Fruit is very nutritious," wrote Pliny the Elder, the first-century Roman philosopher, "and the best food the long-suffering people can eat."

A famous example of the healing power of the fig tree is given in the Bible. Hezekiah, the king of Judah, was 'sick to death' but recovered well after the servants put the figs on his skin.

The ability of the fig tree not only in the tree. Drugs developed over thousands of years have used bark, leaves, roots and even sap.

The use of fig trees for healing even existed before human beings formed. The earliest surviving ancestors of us are chimpanzees who seem to know how to use these plants to cure diseases, suggesting that common ancestors of humans and chimpanzees also know how to do so.

Researchers working in Uganda occasionally observe chimpanzees eating unusual foods, such as bark or wild fig leaves. These chimps are probably self-healing, the researchers conclude. Tests show that leaf and bark components of fig plants have anti-bacterial, parasitic, and tumor effects.

Fig tree, fig tree not only help the civilization, the human culture grows. They also witnessed the dying, and even buried them, hiding the decaying consequences.

For example, the great cities of Indian civilization flourished from 3300 to 1500 BC, but they disappeared from human history until 1827, when a defector fleeing the East India Company named Charles Masson discovered.

Giant live plants appear to hug all other plants. Wreckage piles up like mysterious mounds. Local people told Masson that they were the remains of a godly society punished for "the desires and sins of the king." In fact, it was a long drought that made the civilization of the Indus Valley watershed.

The live fig trees also replaced human places in drowned out places such as the Mayan pyramids of Tikal in Guatemala, or the Khmer temples in Angkor Wat of Cambodia.

In the above cases, the fig trees helped turn the forest back, covering up abandoned architectural blocks. The seeds of the tree bounce from the cracks in the stone wall. The roots of the tree break the stucco and sack, strangling the walls. The fig tree attracts all living things, and then the creatures bring the seeds to spread further. In all likelihood, the green forest gradually overflows with blocks of man-made construction.

This power has also been witnessed in volcanoes like Krakatoa, where volcanic eruptions in 1883 destroyed all life on the island. The fig trees recapture places where only a few layers of lava exist, beginning the formation of new forests.

Throughout the tropics, scientists are rebuilding this effect with the planting of fig trees to accelerate redevelopment of the forest where trees have been cut almost entirely due to uncontrolled logging.

And this means fig trees can provide hope for the future in the context of climate change.

Fig tree can also help us to adapt to the harsh conditions.

In north-east India, the people planted the river-crossing trees, forming strong, solid bridges that made it easy to cross the river during floods.

In Ethiopia, fig trees help farmers adapt to drought by providing the very shade needed for crops and goat dry food. These are effects that may be useful for other areas as well.

In general, fig trees can help us mitigate climate change, protect biodiversity, and improve our livelihoods if we continue to grow and protect them. made from the past thousand years.

In many cultures around the world, cutting down trees belonging to the family tree, such as banyan trees, is taboo.

The long history of this particular tree reminds us that we are only present on this Earth, compared to the 80 million years of their existence. Our future will be safer if we put these special plants into our future companion plan. END=NAM MO SAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES ).VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=THICH CHAN  TANH.VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=GOLDEN AMITABHA MONASTERY=AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.21/12/2018.