LAHORE: The Parks and Horticulture Authority has laid out an avenue of century-old Buddha trees in Bagh-e-Jinnah, giving Lahore’s colonial-era Lawrence Garden a living link to one of the world’s oldest faiths.
Buddhists hold the tree sacred. PHA records note that Siddhartha Gautama meditated for seven weeks beneath a tree of the same kind, without food or water, before attaining enlightenment and becoming the Buddha, the awakened one. The Mauryan emperor Ashoka is also said to have meditated in its shade.
The original tree at Bodh Gaya, in the Indian state of Bihar, no longer stands. The one growing at the Mahabodhi Temple, Buddhism’s holiest pilgrimage site, is regarded as its direct descendant.
Pakistan holds a branch of that family too. Bagh-e-Jinnah project director Jaleel Ahmad said Ashoka’s children carried a cutting to Sri Lanka in the third century BC, where the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi still grows.
A sapling from that tree was presented to President Ayub Khan during his visit to Sri Lanka in December 1963. Foreign Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto planted it at Taxila Museum in January 1964, and it is considered the closest authenticated living link to the Buddha on Pakistani soil.
Mr Ahmad said followers treat the tree with the same reverence as relics of the Buddha. Because it is alive, they see it as a continuing connection to his enlightenment and approach it with devotion.
The tree flourishes from late summer through autumn, September to November in Pakistan, after shedding part of its foliage. It grows best in open, direct sunlight.
The avenue fits a wider push to draw Buddhist visitors to Pakistan’s Gandhara heritage, even as questions remain over relics that may leave Peshawar. The Sri Lankan thread is timely as well, with that country’s cricketers in Pakistan for a T20 series.
The PHA, whose chief toured Lahore’s parks this week, says it will keep caring for the trees and hopes Buddhist families and students will visit to learn about the heritage.
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