Trees That Tell Stories
Sacred trees are not only found in Taiwan. The book Wise Trees show you the photoes of sacred trees all around the world. Photographers Len Jenshel and Diane Cook spent 3 years making Wise Trees.
The first photographs were the blossoming “Survivor Tree." The tree had been pulled out of the ruins of the World Trade Center weeks after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The tree was nursed back to health and re-planted a decade later at what is now the National September 11 Memorial.
In Varanasi, India, a sweet shopwas built around a tree considered too holy to cut down. People there use the tree’s leaves to repel insects, the sap for stomach pain and the twigs to brush their teeth.
In Naunde, Mozambique, a huge mango tree serves as the village center. Under its branches, people tell stories, make marriage arrangements and resolve land disputes.
At a temple in Varanasi, India, people pray to the monkey god Hanuman, who is believed to be embodied in this tree. Devotees leave offerings, rub vermilion paste into the tree’s bark and wrap thread around the tree’s base.
In West Bali, a road runs straight through a sacred banyan tree. Engineers insisted the land the tree grew on was the best place for the road, so worshippers prayed for forgiveness for the giant hole.
In the picture, Mexican children admire this cypress on a school field trip. The tree is said to be the widest (138 feet in circumference) and oldest (1,200 to 3,000 years) of its kind. Authorities diverted a major highway to spare the tree and dug a deeper well because of disappearing swampland.
To remember the children killed at this tree by Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge, visitors hang bracelets on the bark — woven threads, embroidered cloth, leather and beads.
This 170-foot-tall tree is found in the remote Forest of New Zealand and is sacred to the Maori people. The tree is called “Tane Mahuta,” which is translated as Lord of the Forest.
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