菩提树

(菩提樹, 菩提树)

(sa) bodhidruma, (sa) bodhitaru, (sa) bodhivṛkṣa; the wisdom-tree, i.e. that under which Śākyamuni attained his enlightenment, and became Buddha. The (la) Ficus religiosa is the (sa) pippala, or (sa) aśvattha, wrongly identified by Faxian as the palm-tree; it is described as an evergreen, to have been 400 feet high, been cut down several times, but in the Tang dynasty still to be 40 or 50 feet high. A branch of it is said to have been sent by Aśoka to Ceylon, from which sprang the celebrated Bo-tree still flourishing there.