The Sri Mahabodhi Tree
It is hard to believe; but without a shadow of doubt—that this small tree with limbs so slender that they must be supported on iron crutches, is the oldest historically authenticated tree in the world (2,200 years).A branch of the very Bo beneath which (at Buddha Gaya in North India) the Buddha himself found Enlightenment, was brought to Sri Lanka in the 3rd Century B.C. by the Princess/religieuse Sanghamitta; a sister of the saint Mahinda.
It has never since been without its hereditary attendants and the care, to the very end, of the country’s kings. As lately as the reign of the last of them (Sri Vikrama Rajasingha, whom the British captured and deported); a wall was built by royal command to repair the platform on which it grows. In 1966 it was enclosed in a golden railing.