Bendigo has moved a step closer to enlightenment with the official planting of a sacred Bodhi Tree sapling at the Stupa of Universal Compassion on Sunday.
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The event, organised by Bendigo's Sri Lankan Bodhi Dhamma Buddhist Association, drew a crowd of hundreds, including foreign and religious dignitaries from Sri Lanka, India and Tibet, for a multicultural, multi-faith celebration.
Also attending on June 9 was the federal member for Bendigo, Lisa Chesters, who said she was honoured to speak at the ceremony, which marked the culmination of a long journey that had included the tree's being carefully nurtured in quarantine for two and a half years after it arrived in Australia in May 2021.
The Bodhi Dhamma Buddhist Association said that the sapling was taken from a ficus religiosa - a sacred fig in Sri Lanka - standing in the Mahamewna Gardens in Anuradhapura - that is believed to have been propagated from the original Bodhi Tree in India.
It was under the original Bodhi Tree in Bodhgaya, India, about 2600 years ago that the spiritual teacher Siddhartha Gautama, who became known as the Buddha, was said to have attained enlightenment.
According to the association, "Not only is [the parent Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi tree] the closest authentic living link to Gautama Buddha, it is also the oldest human-planted tree in the world, with a known planting date and a recorded history."
The sacred sapling was planted in the Bodhi Dhamma Vihara shrine created by Bendigo's Sri Lankan Buddhists within the Great Stupa as an area for spiritual and cultural reflection.
