Love or Hate a Tree

Pakatan Rakyat , a political coalition of a group of political parties in Malaysia, named a raintree under which an emergency sitting of the Perak state assembly was held The Tree of Democracy, placed a plaque under it to commomerate the event; and days later, vandals hammered the plaque and then splashed a black liquid over the broken black marble slab. I suppose there are trees that draw attention more than the others. Take for instance, the Ficus religiosa, the fig tree with the heart-shaped leaves which is more popularly known as the Boddhi or Bo tree - Buddhists all over the world venerate the tree because Buddha attained Enlightenment while meditating under it. Buddha, after his Enlightenment, had been said to have spent a whole week in front of the tree, standing with unblinking eyes, gazing at the tree with gratitude. A shrine, the Animisalocana cetiya.was later erected on the spot he stood. King Asoka, the great patron of Buddhism, was most diligent in paying homage to the Bodhi tree, holding a festival every year in its honour in the month of Kattika that it caused his queen, Tissarakkha to be jealous. Thus, in the nineteenth year of Asoka's reign, the queen had the tree killed by means of mandu thorns. In life, perhaps, one may love or hate a tree but why doesn't one just love it for its true role in cleansing the air?

A Plaque for The Tree of Democracy...