page_title: Refuge tree
section_title: Structures and compositions
hierarchical_section_title: Refuge tree / Structures and compositions
caption_attribution_description: 18 Bodhi Tree, at the Mahabodhi Temple, Bodhgaya Photograph from the Mahabodhi Temple complex in Gaya, Bihar taken by Anandajoti.
context_page_description: The imagery of the Refuge Tree, also referred to as Refuge Assembly, Refuge Field, Merit Field, Field of Merit or Field of Accumulation is a key part of a visualization and foundational meditation practice common to Tantric Buddhism. Based on descriptions in the liturgical texts of various traditions, Refuge Trees are often depicted in thangkas employed as objects of veneration, mnemonic devices and as a precursor to the contents being fully visualized by the Buddhist practitioner during the Refuge Formula or evocation.
  While the concept of Refuge Trees appears in liturgical texts at least as early as the 16th century, based on known examples Refuge Tree paintings appear to have only become popular from the 18th century making them a late development in the history of Tibetan art.
context_section_description: The structures of the compositions symbolize the interconnectedness of the various figures and groupings. The figures of "Refuge" are depicted within the form of a tree diagram usually supported by three main structures: the branches of a stylised tree, a palace, or lotus flower and lion throne. The support depends on the lineage and the liturgical text the painting is based on.
  When the support is a tree, it is often referred to as a "wish-fulfilling tree" (Wylie: dpag bsam gyi shing). In A Shrine for Tibet, Marylin M. Rhie and Robert A. F. Thurman assert that the depiction of the Refuge Assembly in the form of a tree "developed from the ancient tradition of the Buddha being born under an ashoka tree, attaining enlightenment under a pipal or Bodhi Tree, and passing away from his coarse material body under two sal trees".
caption: Bodhi Tree at the Mahabodhi Temple, Bodhgaya
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