30/06/2023
Prayer flags festoon a Bodhi tree at the Maya Devi Temple in Lumbini, Nepal, Buddha’s birthplace. Also known as the pipul or Bo tree, it is considered sacred because Guatama Buddha, the religion’s founder, reportedly sat under such a tree—the only place on earth, holy texts aver, that was perfectly stable—when he received enlightenment after meditating for 49 days. “Buddhists regard the Bo-tree as too sacred to be touched or robbed of a leaf,” Eliza Scidmore wrote of one of her journeys to the Far East in 1903. “Devout pilgrims kneel, fix their eyes upon it, and in a trance of prayer wait until a miraculous leaf detaches itself and flutters down.”