Description: The peepal or Pipdo (G.) is a tree native of India and it is referred to in Hindu and Buddhist mythologies.
Puruisha Manoja says her mother brought this tree from India when she was born, and for the family it represents the god Vishnu. Every day, during sunrise, the mother or the father watered this Pipdo. Once a year, during the vad-savitri * her mother wrapped it 108 times with a thread around the trunk. When a trunk dried, it was never lay out as it was used during other religious ceremonies.
Vad-savitri or vad purmina is a religious ceremony that is celebrated on the full moon day of the month of Jyeshta, approximately in June in the Gregorian calendar. On this day women pray for prosperity and longevity of their husbands. By joining a group or doing it alone with a ball of yarn on hand, the women wrap the yarn around the trunk of the tree until it reaches 108 laps. (*)
Provided by: Puruisha Manoja, Portuguese.
Present Location: Vitoria Garden Collection (it was transplanted from Quinta da Vitoria neighborhood in October 2014)
Last revision date: March 2016
(I) Numbering in accordance with the archive of trees and plants identified in the Quinta da Vitoria 2012 and 2013.
(II) Mabberley, David J. Mabberley´s Plant-Book: A Portable Dictionary of Plants, their Classifications and Uses. Cambridge University Press, 2008.
(*)Testimonies of residents gathered in a set of recorded conversations in the neighborhood of Quinta da Vitória and after the demolition in Lisbon, Loures and London between July 2012 and October 2014.
(G.) Word in Gujarate language.
