Buddhist and Taoist temples in China have been shown to be outstanding preservation sites for ancient trees. These temples are home to eight tree species that no longer exist in the wild, according to a recent article in the journal Current Biology.
The researchers constructed a database of trees from 5,125 Buddhist temples and 1,420 Taoist temples from across China. It showed that temple grounds are the most likely places in China to find old trees.
The biologists describe temple grounds as ”long-term refuges for trees in otherwise human-dominated landscapes.” There were a total of 47,000 trees identified that were at least 100 years old across all the temple grounds.
The preserved tree species were of course especially likely to be those with spiritual significance. This includes the Buddhist doctrine of “Five Trees and Six Flowers”, including the lotus, the bayan or bodhi tree, and the sal tree, all of which are widely propagated in China but are in fact native to India.
The researchers say much the same of conservation at Taoist temples, which they describe as “China’s indigenous religion”. The preservation of gingko trees at Taoist temples for many centuries is a good example.
The oldest tree identified by the researchers was planted at the Baima Temple, or White Horse Temple, in Luoyang City, Henan. It was the first state-run Buddhist temple in China, founded in the year 68. It is located near the Mount Song Academy, home to the Shaolin Monks.
The Tanzhe Temple in Beijing is home to 178 century-old trees. The tree below, in Tiantong Temple in Zheijang, is 1,260 years old.
Similar findings that show the blending of spiritual-natural conservation have also been made in Europe. The hills and mountains on Central Italy host shrines and monastic sites that have had similar effects on plant conservation.
The Italian sites are not focused on preservation of singular, ancient trees in the same way as Buddhist and Taoist temples. They do, however, preserve many species that are only found at sacred sites.
Researchers attribute this to the long history of conservation in tandem with unique landscape features. More often that ordinary landscapes, devotional sites commonly include springs, cliffs and grottos. These unique features no doubt inspired their conservation in the first place, and their conservation accounts for the unique plant diversity they show today.
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