Sala (pohon)

In Buddhism, the brief flowering of the sal tree is used as a symbol of impermanence and the rapid passing of glory, particularly as an analog of "sic transit gloria mundi". In Japanese Buddhism, this is best known through the opening line of "The Tale of the Heike" – a tale of the rise and fall of a once-powerful clan – whose latter half reads , quoting the four-character idiom from a passage in the Humane King Sutra, .