A tree that stands for an event
In Buddhist tradition the Bodhi tree is the tree under which Siddhartha Gautama became awakened, and the word “bodhi” itself means awakening or enlightenment. Over time the tree came to represent that event rather than only the plant. When Buddhists refer to the tree in art, texts or ritual, they are usually pointing at the possibility of awakening, the place where it happened and the presence of the Buddha, all at once.
This article is about the symbol. The specific living tree at Bodh Gaya, and how it relates to the original, is covered separately.
The tree itself
The tree in the traditional accounts is a pipal, a fig species botanically named Ficus religiosa. Several features make it easy to recognise in art: broad leaves with a long tapering tip, often drawn heart-shaped, and a spreading crown. These leaves appear in carved stone, in metalwork, in temple paintings, and in the everyday souvenirs of pilgrimage towns, where a leaf is sometimes preserved with the veins visible and painted with an image.
Trees were already sacred in the religious landscape of ancient India, so the Bodhi tree sat within a wider habit of honouring particular trees as dwelling places of spirits or deities. Buddhist tradition adopted this familiar idea and gave it a distinct meaning, tied to one person and one night.
Before images of the Buddha
One of the most interesting uses of the symbol is in early Buddhist art. In some of the earliest surviving monuments, such as the carved railings and gateways of stupas dating to the centuries around the start of the common era, the Buddha himself is not shown as a human figure. Instead the story is told through signs: a tree with an empty seat beneath it, a footprint, a wheel, a stupa, a parasol. Scholars call this style aniconic, meaning “without an image”. The topic of aniconic Buddha symbols has its own treatment elsewhere.
In these scenes the tree with a throne usually refers to the awakening. Worshippers, sometimes including a royal party, approach the tree with offerings, and the empty seat is treated as full of meaning. Exactly why artists avoided showing the Buddha is debated. Some scholars point to reverence, and others to artistic convention or different ideas of how a teacher should be represented. It is safest to say that it is not fully settled.
Later, from around the early centuries of the common era, images of the Buddha in human form became common, notably in Gandhara and Mathura. The tree did not vanish. It continued as a background element, a canopy of leaves above a seated figure, or a painted backdrop in a monastery wall.
What the tree can mean
Readers will find several overlapping meanings, and they differ by community.
- Awakening. The tree is the setting of the central event of the tradition, so it can stand in for the awakening itself.
- Shelter and compassion. A tree gives shade, and many teachers have used it as a picture of the protection that the teachings offer.
- Continuity. Because tradition holds that cuttings and saplings have been planted from older trees, the Bodhi tree is also a symbol of teachings handed on from generation to generation. The idea of a Bodhi tree lineage is explored in a related article.
- The world axis. In some traditions the tree is imagined at the centre of the world, which connects it to cosmology.
None of these is the “correct” meaning. They are different readings that coexist.
In different traditions
In Theravada countries such as Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand, a Bodhi tree is often planted within or beside a temple and treated as a living shrine; monks and laypeople offer flowers, lamps and water at its base. Devotion of this kind is described in a companion article on Bodhi Puja.
In Mahayana East Asia the awakening is remembered in other ways, such as ceremonies on or around the eighth of December in the Zen tradition in Japan, often called Rohatsu. Practice differs between temples, so local descriptions should be trusted over generalisations here.
In Vajrayana traditions the tree appears in paintings and in offerings as part of the story of the Buddha’s life, and it is commonly shown alongside the Buddha at the moment of awakening. Practices vary between lineages, and private or restricted teachings are outside the scope of a public guide.
Other uses of trees as symbols exist in Buddhism, such as the lotus and the wheel. For these, see the pieces on lotus symbolism and the Dharma wheel symbol.
Looking at the symbol on a visit
Pilgrims at sites across Asia will meet the Bodhi tree in many forms: a living tree behind a railing, a carved relief, a stylised pipal leaf on a banner, a painted image on a wall. Some practical suggestions for looking respectfully:
- Notice whether a seat or throne is shown beneath the tree and whether it is empty.
- Look at who approaches the tree in a carving: pilgrims, kings, celestial beings.
- Watch how local people treat a living tree, and follow the same habits. Often they walk clockwise around it, offer flowers or water, or sit silently nearby.
- Do not pick leaves or break branches unless local custom clearly allows leaves that have fallen naturally to be collected.
Customs vary, and signs or caretakers’ instructions should always take priority over general advice.