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Sorrowless Tree |
All the local folks believe in Hinayana in Xishuangbanna; many plants related with Buddhism are planted, and sorrowless tree is one of them.
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Branches of Sorrowless tree |
2500 years ago, there was a Jiapiluowei Kingdom under the foot of Himalayan (Nepal today). The king and the queen did not give birth to a child for many years. When the queen was 45 years old, she dreamed of a white elephant running into her stomach, and she was pregnant. According to the customs then, women must go back to her parents' family to give birth to her first child; so, the evening before the queen gave birth to a child, she went back to her parents' home on a sedan carried on the back of an elephant. When she passed Lanpini Garden, she felt quite tired and she got off the sedan to take a rest in the garden; when she went close to a sorrowless tree, she was puzzled and therefore, she gave birth to a baby under the tree, and the baby was Sakyamuni - the founder of Buddhism. Therefore, all the Dai villages in Xishuangbanna have Buddhist temples and each temple plants sorrowless trees. Moreover, the families that want to have children often plant a sorrowless tree before or behind their houses.
Sorrowless tree is a kind of evergreen arbor; it has beautiful shapes and exuberant leaves, and is a superb plant for sightseeing. Though the flowers of the tree are small, they are quite crowded and abloom on the trees in strings and bunch. Their flowers are golden yellow and are the flowers on aged stalks best loved by local folks.
It's said that, if a person stands under the sorrowless tree, he would forget all the worries and concerns.
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