Tree Worship Research Articles

Soul of Banyan Tree: A Study on the Folk Culture of Banyan Tree Worship in Hainan

Soul of Banyan Tree: A Study on the Folk Culture of Banyan Tree Worship in Hainan

Trees in Taiwanese Folklore

In Taiwanese folklore, the worship of immortal trees has taken various forms. Often such practices are closely related to the worship of the earth god. In other cases, what is called Dashugong, literally ‘great tree god’, acts as a child’s guardian figure: the health and reproduction of a living tree in an otherworldly setting parallel the health and posterity of a human being. Religious rituals associated with ancient tree worship continue today. Trees symbolise fertility in folk beliefs and in folk art, and the impact of ancient beliefs may be traced in horticultural practices, and in the retail sale of trees. The idea that gods reside in large trees persists, as does the belief that a tree spirit appears only when it – or the living tree – is confronted, wounded, or killed. Reacting to such violence, a tree spirit becomes vengeful and dangerous. Government agencies and environmentalists have alluded to this concept to promote conservation. When an old tree dies, people nowadays plant a sapling to replace it. The tree of life continues to be celebrated, no longer for its gigantic profile but as a symbol of renewal.

Obsolete Worship

Man, who at first feared the power of nature, worshiped nature so as not to succumb to its wrath. He worshiped many deities such as nature worship, tree worship, Murugan worship, Shiva worship. Worship of Indra, Varuna, Kaman, Brahman, Balarama and Nadukal, which were once worshiped as special deities, are not in use today.

Small Deity Worship in Sri Lanka: A Comparative Study Based on Hindu and Buddhist Religious Traditions

The People who have not only multi ethnic, multi -religious and multi -languages in Sri Lanka but also, they follow different beliefs and cultural traditions as well. Hindu and Buddhist religious and cultural traditions are very prominent in Sri Lanka. Even though India is the root cause for the prevailing Hindu and Buddhist traditions in Sri Lanka, both the traditions and its worships and beliefs have unique and independent characteristics different from India. Small deity worship comprises of unique and independent characteristics in Sri Lanka. Small Deity worship in Hindu tradition: Kazhippu ritual, temple ritual, Kumara Deiva worship, Vairava worship, Pathini Amman worship, tree worship, Naga thampiran worship and small deity worship in Buddhist tradition: Thovil, Magapirith, katharagama deio, Bahirava, Pathini Deio, Bothi tree, Maga Naga are compared and identified unique and innovative characteristics among them. In this research, historical method, comparative method and descriptive method have been used. Data gathered from field work are considered as primary sources and data gathered from literature, research articles, manuscripts, etc. considered as secondary sources. Knowing origin and background of Hindu and Buddhist religion, identifying characteristics of small deity worship in Hindu and Buddhist tradition in Sri Lanka, discovering unique and innovative characteristics of small deity worship of Hindu and Buddhist traditions and evaluating values revealed by the two traditions are objectives of the research. Research area for this study is Magoya Divisional Secretary and Eravur Pattu Divisional Secretary. The conclusion of the research is that the small deity worships of the above two traditions fulfills psychological needs of the concerned people and small deity worship beliefs and traditions of Hindu and Buddhist religions will continue for long time.

A Note on Tree Worship in the Zaza Folk Beliefs

The article presents some historical evidence about the veneration of individual trees, primarily the juniper and the oak-trees, traditionally considered to be sacred in the Zaza culture, as well as generally groves and forests. Unfortunately, the once vast and rich forestal covering of the Zazas’ main habitat in Dersim (Tunceli), which was a proverbial phenomenon still in the beginning of the 20th century, has been almost totally exterminated as a result of the mistreatment by the Turkish government. The folk beliefs related to tree worship have also been considerably erased from the people’s memory, lingering on only among the elderly in the remote mountain villages as a dwindling echo of the past.

Influences of Egyptian Lotus Symbolism and Ritualistic Practices on Sacral Tree Worship in the Fertile Crescent from 1500 BCE to 200 CE

Many conventional features of world tree motifs in the ancient Near East—including stalked palmettes, aureoles of water lily palmettes connected by pliant stems, floral rosettes, winged disks and bud-and-blossom motifs—trace largely from Egyptian practices in lotus symbolism around 2500 BCE, more than a millennium before they appear, migrate and dominate plant symbolism across the Fertile Crescent from 1500 BCE to 200 CE. Several of these motifs were associated singularly or collectively with the Egyptian sema-taui and ankh signs to symbolize the eternal recurrence and everlasting lives of Nilotic lotus deities and deceased pharaohs. The widespread use of lotus imagery in iconographic records on both sides of the Red Sea indicates strong currents of cultural diffusion between Nilotic and Mesopotamian civilizations, as does the use of lotus flowers in religious rituals and the practice of kingship, evidence for which is supported by iconographic, cuneiform and biblical records. This perspective provides new insights into sacral tree symbolism and its role in mythic legacies of Egypt and the Middle East before and during the advent of Christianity. Closer scholarly scrutiny is still needed to fully comprehend the underlying meaning of immortalizing plants in the mythic traditions of Egypt, the Levant and Mesopotamia.

The practice of tree worship and the territorial production of urban space in the Indian neighbourhood

In India, there are religious practices intersecting with the process of urbanization at various levels. This paper looks at the practice of tree worship which continues to be a part of everyday life here. Specifically, it looks at how the Peepul tree (Ficus Religiosa) shrine with its serpent stones and the raised platform around it (katte) contributes to the territorial production of urban space in the city of Bangalore. Based on a study of 10 kattes in the city, it finds that these urban spaces belong either to a process of territorialization by the local community or its deterritorialization by the government. The paper builds a theoretical argument for how the katte as a ‘human activity node’ contributes to an ‘urban web’ which is categorized here as the physical layer. It finds that the Peepul tree could enable a ‘network of relations’, termed as the social layer. It suggests that the information fields generated within these layers influences collective memory of the people. Finally, the paper argues that the two layers acting together can help formulate an urban design model that can minimize deterritorialization.

Geography of Religion in Japan: Religious Space, Landscape, and Behavior By KeisukeMatsui. New York: Springer, 2014. Pp. vii +199. Hardcover, $129.00.

The key and absolutely important premise of this book, as stated in its preface, is that “[t]o understand the function of religion it is essential to examine it in the context of local societies.” But what does this mean, and how does one go about doing it? The author argues that in geographical study of religion in Japan four common approaches are employed—studies focusing 1) on the relation of nature and environment, 2) on how religion shapes local society, organizations, and landscapes, 3) on pilgrimages to sacred places, and 4) thick descriptions of the structure of actual religious spaces—the web of landscape, temples and shrines, people, communities, and ritual activities that complexly coexist in a given sacred space. The study investigates each approach in turn, focusing on a specific Japanese sacred area for a detailed analysis of lived religion on the ground. Chapter 2 is a study of tree worship and forest culture at Suwa Taisha's Onbashira festival. Here the author builds on the famous thesis of Watsuji Tetsurō that Japanese climate (fudo) directly affects the structure of Japanese sacred landscapes. Chapter 3, which makes up most of the book, is a detailed study of the “belief areas,” that is, the different “zones” in the areas around a sacred space that are filled with their religious organizations and belief systems. He closely examines two Shintō shrines, Kasama Inari in Ibakaki prefecture and Kanamura shrine in Saitama prefecture. Chapter 4 looks at tourism and pilgrimage in the marketplace by focusing on the changing types of businesses at Narita Shinshiji-Monzenmachi, and how world heritage status has effected the revitalization of local communities in Japanese sacred areas. This is a data-rich study that shows the complexities of faith in local settings in Japan not only spatially, but temporally as well—as new global forces, like the possibility of receiving World Heritage Site Status, transform the way people understand local manifestations of the sacred as a cultural resource. This is definitely not a text for the classroom, but for serious researchers interested in Japanese religion, sacred geography, and pilgrimage and religious tourism.

A Case Study of Miao Village in China: Cultural Identity, Change and Conservation

With the accelerating process of modernization, the existing space of traditional culture is narrowed increasingly, which is the general trend of contemporary social economy and culture development. The Miao village in this thesis is unexceptionally affected by the modernization of outside world. For instance, tourism development has changed their traditional culture. However, for some reasons, the Miao village still maintains the primitive religions and burial customs such as tree worship and tree burial. Such precious traditional cultures as the Swing Festival, the village marriage custom and the characteristic costume and hair style, etc. are still seen in the village that is honored as the “living fossil” of the traditional culture of the Miao people. The survival of traditional culture always depends on the social demand; after the society opened, the survival or disappearance of traditional culture is always affected by the mainstream society.

People trees: worship of trees in northern India

Acknowledgements Note on Translation and Transliteration Introduction Chapter 1: Root Issues Chapter 2: Tree Worship in India Chapter 3: King of Trees Chapter 4: Abode of Ghosts and Saturn Chapter 5: Faces of the Goddess Chapter 6: Trees of Immortality Chapter 7: Arboreal Reflections Glossary Bibliography Index Notes

On the Present-day Veneration of Sacred Trees in the Holy Land

This article surveys the current pervasiveness of the phenomenon of sacred trees in the Holy Land, with special reference to the official attitudes of local religious leaders and the attitudes of Muslims in comparison with the Druze as well as in monotheism vs. polytheism. Field data regarding the rea- sons for the sanctification of trees and the common beliefs and rituals related to them are described, comparing the form which the phenomenon takes among different ethnic groups. In addition, I discuss the temporal and spatial changes in the magnitude of tree worship in Northern Israel, its syncretic aspects, and its future.

Faces in the Trees

Consideration of tree worship was once central to theories of religion, which tended to view this practice as a primitive form of anthropomorphic animism that has no place in a civilized modern world. How might we regard tree worship once it is liberated from the cultural evolutionary views of the nineteenth century? Neem trees have long been associated with the goddess Shitala in Hindu religious culture. This essay examines the worship of individual neem trees in northern India, which in some cases involves clothing the tree and attaching a human-like facemask to it. Ethnographic evidence suggests that this remarkable form of anthropomorphic activity can be best understood as an intentional strategy for establishing more intimate relationships with the nonhuman world. Although it is not the explicit goal of most tree worshipers in India, this practice may serve as a possible resource for the preservation of trees.

Rituals, ceremonies and customs related to sacred trees with a special reference to the Middle East

Tree worship is very common worldwide. This field study surveys the ceremonies and customs related to sacred trees in present-day Israel; it includes the results of interviews with 98 informants in thirty-one Arab, Bedouin, and Druze villages in the Galilee.The main results are:1. Sacred trees were treated as another kind of sacred entity with all their metaphysical as well as physical manifestations.2. There is not even one ceremony or custom that is peculiar only to a sacred tree and is not performed in other sacred places (such as a saint's grave or a mosque).3. Few customs, such as: quarrel settling (= Sulkha), leaving objects to absorb the divine blessing and leaving objects for charity) seem to be characteristic of this region, only.4. In modern times, sacred trees were never recorded, in Israel, as centres for official religious ceremonies including sacrifices, nor as places for the performing of rites of passage.5. There is some variation among the different ethnic groups: Kissing trees and worshipping them is more common among the Druze although carrying out burials under the tree, leaving water and rain-making ceremonies under them have not been recorded in this group. Passing judgments under the tree is more typical of the Bedouin in which the sacred trees were commonly used as a public social centre.Most of the customs surveyed here are known from other parts of the world. The differences between Muslims and Druze are related to the latter's belief in the transmigration of souls.

Bodhi Tree Worship As Seen in the Pali Canonical Texts

In the Pali canonical texts, there exist 26 examples (2 in the Jataka and 24 in the Apadana) that mention worship of the Bodhi tree. In the worship of the Bodhi tree, the renunciants did not do anything by themselves. Rather, while responding to the requests of lay followers, they suggested the worship of the Bodhi tree and played the role of advisor or observer. They taught lay followers the meaning of Bodhi tree worship, and explained to them its significance. It developed in a gradual process as below: Very shortly after the mahaparinibbana of the Buddha, the Bodhi tree was seen ‘the place of reminiscences of the Buddha’. With the passage of time, when the Jataka and the Apadana were written, the Bodhi tree was perceived as ‘the Buddha himself’. As time went on further, when the commentaries were written, the Bodhi tree was accepted as the wisdom of the four-fold path or ‘the enlightenment of the Buddha’.In this paper, I refer to some of the literary evidence and discuss how the concept of worship of the Bodhi tree changed with the passage of time, particularly for renunciants.

Role of social aspects in extent of on-farm tree growing in subsistence agroforestry systems of Western Himalaya

Many so-called society-oriented agroforestry programs, mainly in developing countries, fail because they do not take account of the social structure in their design. This study provides empirical evidence of the impact of social structure on the extent of on-farm tree growing. The study has been carried out in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh, in Indian Western Himalaya. Analysis of survey data reveals significant relationships between extent of on-farm tree growing and caste, education of the head of household, family literacy, primary occupation, government employment, mobility of the household head, importance of tree growing for future generations, and holy tree worship practices. Households with concrete houses had more trees than households with mixed, mud and wooden houses. The study implies a need to consider social factors to encourage the level of on-farm tree growing and to design socially acceptable agroforestry programs. The study also emphasises the need for a holistic approach to agroforestry development by integrating other continuing rural development programs with that of agroforestry to increase the level of on-farm tree growing.

The "Topping out" Traditions of the High-Steel Ironworkers

is the term used by ironworkers to indicate that the final piece of steel is being hoisted into place on a building, bridge, or other large structure.1 project is not completed, but has reached its maximum height. To commemorate this first milestone the final piece of iron is usually hoisted into place with a small evergreen tree (called a Christmas tree in the trade) and an American flag attached.2 piece is usually painted white and signed by the ironworkers and visiting dignitaries (figure 1). If the project is important enough (and the largesse of the contractor great enough) the ceremony may culminate in a celebration known as a out party in which the construction crews are treated to food and drink. Ironworkers belong to the union called International Association of Bridge, Structural, and Ornamental Ironworkers, which was established in 1896. Local #1 is in Chicago, the putative birthplace of the skyscraper. work encompasses a wide variety of construction activities from the placement of reinforcing steel (called re-bar) in concrete structures, to welding, to heavy rigging, to the more visible and extreme activities like the erection of skyscrapers and bridges. oldest continuous aspect of the trade is practiced by ornamental ironworkers who install metal stairways, ladders, catwalks and a wide array of decorative metal structures. Ornamental ironwork predates the union and the use of structural steel by many hundreds of years. Even though steel long ago supplanted iron as a building material the men in the trade are called ironworkers-not steel workers-and they usually refer to the columns and beams as iron. One reason the ironworkers observe the topping out custom is the simple fact that they are the first workers to reach the top of the structure. I guess the impulse to commemorate the achievement is similar to that of mountain climbers-or astronauts landing on the moon that matter.3 Topping out the structure means the end is in sight the raising-gang-the men who actually set the iron in place. There is more work to be done, and ironworkers will be involved in some aspects of it, but the heavy work is done and the raising gang is almost out of a job. While no two topping out ceremonies are the same, they usually have some combination of a tree, a flag, the ritual signing of the final beam, and a party. custom of decorating the uppermost point of the structure with an evergreen tree is a tradition that predates the structural-steel industry in America by hundreds of years and has old Northern European roots. Although the topping out tree has ancient roots there is no consensus among modern ironworkers as to what exactly the tree symbolizes, or when and how came to be used by the ironworkers. According to Ironworker, the union's official publication, for some the evergreen tree symbolizes that the job went up without a loss of life, while others it's a good luck charm the future occupants(1984:11). Other accounts attribute the tree as signifying simply that we [ironworkers] did it (Kodish, 1989:2). Little scholarship has been published on this custom. Most of what has been published has appeared in newspapers, popular magazines and engineering trade journals. One can get a feel the age and scope of such tree rituals from James Frazer who discusses tree worship extensively in Golden Bough. (Indeed, the title of the book itself is an allusion to tree worship.) For example, in Chapter Ten, Relics of Tree-Worship in Modern Europe, Frazer reports that was common practice in spring or early summer the people to go into the woods and cut branches and fasten them to every house (1922:139). Frazer further remarks, The intention of these customs is to bring home to the village, and to each house, the blessings which the tree-spirit has in its power to bestow (1922: 139). evergreen tree's ability to survive the harsh Northern European winter must have made a powerful life-affirming symbol. …

European paganism: the realities of cult from antiquity to the Middle Ages

European Paganism provides a comprehensive and accessible overview of ancient pagan religions throughout the European continent. Before there where Christians, the peoples of Europe were pagans. Were they bloodthirsty savages hanging human offerings from trees? Were they happy ecologists, valuing the unpolluted rivers and mountains? In European Paganism Ken Dowden outlines and analyses the diverse aspects of pagan ritual and culture from human sacrifice to pilgrimage lunar festivals and tree worship. It includes: * a 'timelines' chart to aid with chronology * many quotations from ancient and modern sources translated from the original language where necessary, to make them accessible * a comprehensive bibliography and guide to further reading.

Josephus' Portrait of Asa

Abstract Whereas the rabbinic tradition attacks King Asa of Judah for trusting in himself rather than in G-d and, in particular, for drafting the sages, Josephus, the apologist, omits such details and, indeed, whitewashes Asa completely. He is praised particularly, in language reminiscent of Josephus' portraits of Saul and David, as well as of Thucydides' Pericles, for putting his nation in order. In particular, Josephus emphasizes Asa's obedience to the ancestral laws. And yet, because he realized that his audience, consisting apparently primarily of non-Jews, would resent as intolerant the forcible destruction of idols, tree worship, and mystery cults, he omits such details. Because proselytism was such a burning issue at the time, in view of the Jews' apparently extraordinary success during this period in attracting converts, Josephus omits the passage that implies that Asa attracted proselytes to his army.

Josephus' Portrait of Asa

Abstract Whereas the rabbinic tradition attacks King Asa of Judah for trusting in himself rather than in G-d and, in particular, for drafting the sages, Josephus, the apologist, omits such details and, indeed, whitewashes Asa completely. He is praised particularly, in language reminiscent of Josephus' portraits of Saul and David, as well as of Thucydides' Pericles, for putting his nation in order. In particular, Josephus emphasizes Asa's obedience to the ancestral laws. And yet, because he realized that his audience, consisting apparently primarily of non-Jews, would resent as intolerant the forcible destruction of idols, tree worship, and mystery cults, he omits such details. Because proselytism was such a burning issue at the time, in view of the Jews' apparently extraordinary success during this period in attracting converts, Josephus omits the passage that implies that Asa attracted proselytes to his army.

Tree Worship

Tree Worship