Bodhi leaf
The leaf of the Bodhi tree, the sacred fig under which, Buddhists believe, the Buddha attained enlightenment.
Meaning
The Bodhi tree is Ficus religiosa, the sacred fig, and its leaf is easy to recognise: broad and heart-shaped, narrowing to a long, thin tip 2 to 5 cm long. Buddhists hold the tree sacred because the Buddha is believed to have reached enlightenment meditating beneath it, and it is often planted at Buddhist temples. The tree is sacred in Hinduism too. In temple grounds, dried leaves painted with religious pictures are sold to visitors.
Origin and history
In the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, the account of his last days, the Buddha names the place where he "became fully enlightened" as one of four places his followers should visit. That place is Bodh Gaya, where the tree stood.
Sri Lankan chronicles tell how King Ashoka sent a cutting of the Bodh Gaya tree to Sri Lanka in the 3rd century BCE. His daughter, the nun Sanghamitta, brought it with eleven other nuns, who were to begin the order of nuns on the island, and it was planted in a royal park at Anuradhapura; the chronicles give the date as around 288 BCE. The tree at Bodh Gaya was destroyed long ago. The one at Anuradhapura, the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi, still stands, and Singapore's National Parks Board records it as more than 2,300 years old. According to Nekhor's pilgrimage guide, most of Sri Lanka's Bodhi trees, and some in Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand, were grown from its seeds.
In the earliest Buddhist art the tree stood for the Buddha's enlightenment in place of any image of him. Foucher drew examples from ancient Indian coins in which the leaves have the shape of the sacred fig's and the foot of the tree is always fenced by a railing. He also recalls the tradition of Ashoka's special devotion to the Bodhi tree.
Pilgrims at Anuradhapura
At the full moon of Poson, in May or June, about a million people come to the tree at Anuradhapura to make offerings in memory of the Buddha's enlightenment. At Duruthu, the full moon in January, the first rice of the new harvest is offered to it.
Pictures painted on the leaves
In China, painting on Bodhi leaves became a form of Buddhist art of its own. The Tsz Shan Monastery Buddhist Art Museum describes how it was done: the leaf was soaked in water for a month until only its veins were left, pasted onto paper cut to the same shape, and then painted. Few survive, and most that do are from the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368 to 1912). The museum's album of the Eighteen Luohans painted on Bodhi leaves probably dates from the Qing, when such paintings were in fashion.
Where you’ll see it today
whatdoesthissymbolmean.comFlag of Sri LankaSri Lanka’s flag, the Lion Flag, has a gold lion holding a sword on a maroon panel with a bo leaf in each corner, and green and orange vertical bands by the pole, all framed in gold. The Sunday Times explains the lion with its upright sword as righteous rule and justice to all; the National Archives give the bo leaves as four Buddhist virtues; the two bands stand for the minorities, green for Muslims and orange for Tamils in Store norske leksikon (Hindus in the Sunday Times).Read next
- Next in Buddhist symbolsTriratnaThe symbol of the Three Jewels of Buddhism: the Buddha, the Dharma (his teaching) and the Sangha (the community).
- The same shape in Japanese symbolsRaijin and Fūjin (thunder and wind)Raijin is the kami of thunder, drawn since the Kamakura period as a demon inside a ring of linked drums. Fūjin is the god of the winds, who carries the winds in a bag. Tawaraya Sōtatsu’s screens show the two together.
See also
Dharmachakra, Ensō, Stupa, Parasol, Pair of golden fish, Treasure vase.
Sources
- Ficus religiosa, Flora & Fauna Web, National Parks Board, Singapore, Description; Cultural / Religious
- Anuradhapura Part 1: Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi, Nekhor (Lhasey Lotsawa)
- Album of Eighteen Luohans Painted on Bodhi Leaves, Tsz Shan Monastery Buddhist Art Museum
- Maha-parinibbana Sutta: Last Days of the Buddha (DN 16), Sister Vajira and Francis Story (translators), Buddhist Publication Society, via Access to Insight, ch. 5, §18
- The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology, A. Foucher, 1917, Paul Geuthner, Paris; Humphrey Milford, London (Internet Archive)
- Buddhist Art in India, Albert Grünwedel, trans. Agnes C. Gibson, rev. James Burgess, 1901, Bernard Quaritch, London (Internet Archive)
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from curves and waves.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 30, 2026. How we research
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