17.2 The People-Creating Tree or Tree of Life
289
provided an ideal biotope for many insects and reptiles, supplying ample nourishment to
the imagination.
Mahdi comments also that
The sacred benjamin tree cult not only coincides in its distribution area with megalithism at
least in Western Austronesia, but actually forms an integral part of some megalithic monuments or ritual meeting places. Colani (1937) noted that a stone terraced construction at
Do-link in central Vietnam had a tree of the genus Ficus at its top. A benjamin tree is
reported by Roder (1939) at the top of the megalithist hill-sanctuary and meeting place at
Soya near Ambon, central Maluku [Moluccas/Spice Islands].
Mahdi describes in detail the place of actual fig trees with aerial roots in association with megalithic objects as ritual mediums in many Lapita colonies. He reports,
for example, a ritual dancing ground of a village of the Lambumbu on the island
of Malekula, Vanuatu, described by Deacon in 1934 as “a large circle surrounded
by upright monoliths and with a tier of four standing stone slabs at the centre.
Two avenues lined by pairs of stones lead in opposite directions from the circle.
At another point on the perimeter, approximately equidistant to the ends of the
avenues, stands what is described as a gigantic banyan tree. The entire circular dancing ground lies within the shadow of the giant tree.” Mahdi gives evidence of similar
ritual plantings in Malekula, Pentecost, Erromango and Tanna in Island Melanesia
where the shade of the tree serves as a meeting place. In New Caledonia the sacred
banyan tree is usually found at burial and other hallowed sites. Mahdi tells us that
In the Marquesas islands in Polynesia, tribal or chiefly centres had as a rule a tohua, an
elevated terrace on which was a large rectangular gathering field surrounded by smaller
stone terraces with houses of the chiefs and priests, temples and other important houses or
galleries. At one end usually stood the main temple with a sacred banyan tree before it, in
which the bones of particularly revered dead ancestors were hung (Suggs 1982: 779). This
Marquesan sacred banyan obviously paralleled the sacred benjamin atop stone terraces or
other megalithic complexes in Southeast Asia noted above. The exposure of the revered
bones, as also the New Caledonian burial custom, may perhaps be associated with the custom of reburial after excarnation, attested for the megalithism of Southeast Asia and south
India. In the Marquesas, the banyan was also one of two tree species regarded as sacred in
general, and which were almost always associated with sacred mortuary sites (pp. 201–202).
Where Mahdi sees tree worship originating in Western Austronesia, Oppenheimer sees its origins in the Spice Islands and, as we have noted, traces its diffusion along migration trails (which have left genetic markers) into northern Europe
as far as Finland. Mahdi himself tentatively suggests a link between the tree cult
associated with the sacred benjamin tree in Indonesia and the sacred linden tree cult
among German and Slavic peoples in Central Europe:
It was customary in some regions of Central Europe that a hallowed linden tree stood in the
village square or the yard of a castle (not unlike the banyan in Java or the Marquesas), or in
a graveyard (cf. the banyan in Kisar or New Caldedonia), or that the shade of an old linden
tree served as a permanent place of session of a court of justice (like the meeting place in
Tanna).
James Frazer in The Golden Bough [8] gives examples of tree worship in countries ranging from the Philippines to Germany, fundamentally associated with the
289
provided an ideal biotope for many insects and reptiles, supplying ample nourishment to
the imagination.
Mahdi comments also that
The sacred benjamin tree cult not only coincides in its distribution area with megalithism at
least in Western Austronesia, but actually forms an integral part of some megalithic monuments or ritual meeting places. Colani (1937) noted that a stone terraced construction at
Do-link in central Vietnam had a tree of the genus Ficus at its top. A benjamin tree is
reported by Roder (1939) at the top of the megalithist hill-sanctuary and meeting place at
Soya near Ambon, central Maluku [Moluccas/Spice Islands].
Mahdi describes in detail the place of actual fig trees with aerial roots in association with megalithic objects as ritual mediums in many Lapita colonies. He reports,
for example, a ritual dancing ground of a village of the Lambumbu on the island
of Malekula, Vanuatu, described by Deacon in 1934 as “a large circle surrounded
by upright monoliths and with a tier of four standing stone slabs at the centre.
Two avenues lined by pairs of stones lead in opposite directions from the circle.
At another point on the perimeter, approximately equidistant to the ends of the
avenues, stands what is described as a gigantic banyan tree. The entire circular dancing ground lies within the shadow of the giant tree.” Mahdi gives evidence of similar
ritual plantings in Malekula, Pentecost, Erromango and Tanna in Island Melanesia
where the shade of the tree serves as a meeting place. In New Caledonia the sacred
banyan tree is usually found at burial and other hallowed sites. Mahdi tells us that
In the Marquesas islands in Polynesia, tribal or chiefly centres had as a rule a tohua, an
elevated terrace on which was a large rectangular gathering field surrounded by smaller
stone terraces with houses of the chiefs and priests, temples and other important houses or
galleries. At one end usually stood the main temple with a sacred banyan tree before it, in
which the bones of particularly revered dead ancestors were hung (Suggs 1982: 779). This
Marquesan sacred banyan obviously paralleled the sacred benjamin atop stone terraces or
other megalithic complexes in Southeast Asia noted above. The exposure of the revered
bones, as also the New Caledonian burial custom, may perhaps be associated with the custom of reburial after excarnation, attested for the megalithism of Southeast Asia and south
India. In the Marquesas, the banyan was also one of two tree species regarded as sacred in
general, and which were almost always associated with sacred mortuary sites (pp. 201–202).
Where Mahdi sees tree worship originating in Western Austronesia, Oppenheimer sees its origins in the Spice Islands and, as we have noted, traces its diffusion along migration trails (which have left genetic markers) into northern Europe
as far as Finland. Mahdi himself tentatively suggests a link between the tree cult
associated with the sacred benjamin tree in Indonesia and the sacred linden tree cult
among German and Slavic peoples in Central Europe:
It was customary in some regions of Central Europe that a hallowed linden tree stood in the
village square or the yard of a castle (not unlike the banyan in Java or the Marquesas), or in
a graveyard (cf. the banyan in Kisar or New Caldedonia), or that the shade of an old linden
tree served as a permanent place of session of a court of justice (like the meeting place in
Tanna).
James Frazer in The Golden Bough [8] gives examples of tree worship in countries ranging from the Philippines to Germany, fundamentally associated with the