Is sandalwood a parasitic plant?
Sandalwood is produced from the sandalwood tree of Santalaceae. Sandalwood has a very long history, which is mentioned in ancient Sanskrit books and China's books. Some islands native to the East Indies, especially the highlands of 600-2400 meters in South India, are also distributed in Pacific islands and Australia, and are also widely planted in Hainan, China. Among them, India accounts for 75% of the total output of sandalwood in the world.
Strange to say, sandalwood is a kind of tree, but it is a semi-parasitic tree, which is often parasitic on shrubs and grasses shorter than it. It is tightly adsorbed on the host plants with root sucker and absorbs their nutrients for growth. Although the roots of sandalwood trees also absorb a small amount of nutrients from the soil, they mainly survive by plundering the nutrients of host plants.
The height of this tree is medium, and its heartwood is sandalwood, which is brown and can extract sandalwood essential oil. When the age of the tree is 40-50 years, the sandalwood tree can reach maturity. At this time, the height is about 12 to 15 meters, the circumference of heartwood can reach the longest and the oil content is the highest. The dark brown trunk has a strong smell, especially near the ground and roots. Aromatic and oily parts are mainly in heartwood and roots, while bark and sapwood are tasteless. Mature trees can produce 200 kilograms of essential oil, which is huge. The essential oil produced by roots is between 6% and 7%, and that of heartwood is between 2% and 5%.
Why is sandalwood in such a high position?
Sandalwood essential oil is distilled from sandalwood. After storage for six months, it can reach a proper maturity and fragrance. Its color changed from light yellow to yellow brown, thick, sweet, natural and fruity. Its aroma has the effect of calming the nerves and helping sleep, revealing holiness in silence, which can make people concentrate, feel at peace and have more wisdom and potential.
Since ancient times, sandalwood has held a sacred position in the minds of China people. "Tan" was originally a transliteration of Indian Sanskrit, meaning "giving". Sandalwood trees have the reputation of "sacred trees" and "lucky trees". Historically, the furniture in the palace was designated to be made of old sandalwood, and the study and bedroom of the emperor also burned sandalwood. The ancients thought that inhaling sandalwood and sitting on it could increase the aura. Later, it spread to the people, and some business owners would burn sandalwood in their own shops to attract wealth and ward off evil spirits, enhance their popularity and prosper their business.
Sandalwood is also an essential thing for believers to offer Buddha. Many statues and temples are carved with sandalwood. Sandalwood has been used in religious ceremonies for a long time and has always been regarded as a sacred product in incense wood by Indians. For example, it has been recorded in Buddhist scriptures that the wooden board used by Sakyamuni to learn to write when he was a child is the best sandalwood "Taotoutan", which is produced in Mount Moroye. Later, Buddhism flourished, and sandalwood undoubtedly became the first fragrance of Buddhism.
Sandalwood has been imported from China for 1000 years. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, sandalwood began to enter China with the introduction of Buddhism. Sandalwood was introduced into the mainland from Tibet, Yunnan and the southeast coast as a spice to worship the Buddha. The pious pilgrims paid a high price for this small piece of sandalwood, which was extremely fragrant when lit as a tribute to incense.
A mysterious legend about sandalwood, a mysterious sandalwood Buddha statue.
There is also a magical legend about sandalwood.
According to legend, Udayana, the king of the Western Regions, worshipped the Buddha who spoke in the sky, so he begged his disciple Omura to send the sculptor to heaven with divine power, asking him to remember the appearance of the Buddha, find sandalwood and order him to carve it into a Buddha statue.
Finally, the carved Buddha statue is eight feet high, which is half of the Buddha's real body. The unique purple-gold color of the Buddha statue is the unique color of sandalwood. According to legend, during the Southern Dynasties, Liang Wudi sent troops across the sea to find this sandalwood statue, which was enshrined in the crock pavilion in Jinling (now Nanjing). In the Song Dynasty, Emperor Taizong of the Northern Song Dynasty built Qisheng Temple in Luoyang, the eastern capital, and moved the sandalwood statue from Jinling to Luoyang.
During the reign of Song Huizong, the court planned to move the statue to the main hall of the monastery. I chose an auspicious day, beating gongs and drums, and carrying the statue of Rui in a sedan chair. When I was about to enter the main hall, I found that the beam height of the temple door was not enough, which blocked Ruixiang's head. The officials in charge of management are very anxious, and they are going to ask craftsmen to saw off the beams. Suddenly I heard someone shout: Ruixiang seems ready to go over. However, if Ruixiang bends down, it can just pass under the lintel. As soon as the sedan chair passed the door beam, it recovered in the blink of an eye. All the people attending the ceremony witnessed the spectacle with their own eyes. Now chanting Buddha in unison, some people are moved to tears.
Although it is only a legend that Rui Xiang bowed his head and entered the temple, records about sandalwood can often be seen in the official history, which proves the sacred position of sandalwood in Middle-earth Buddhism. Thus, sandalwood and Buddhism seem to form a complementary relationship: sandalwood is the best material for carving Buddha statues because of its wonderful aroma and quiet and sacred characteristics, and the sacred feeling of Buddhism in turn greatly enhances the magical properties of sandalwood. Therefore, sandalwood was often regarded as a magical treasure in ancient China.