Description: This tree, also known as pipdo (G.) comes from India. It was planted in the Quinta da Vitoria 30 years ago. It is said that the plant was watered every day. In addition, a prayer to their ancestors was said. Once a year, during the raksha bandhan they deposited offerings shared between brothers and sisters. Raksha bandhan is a religious ceremony celebrated by Hindu people to commemorate the relationship between brothers, sisters and close friends. The celebration happens always on a full moon day during the Shravan month (corresponding to August in the Gregorian calendar approximately). On this day, the sisters put bracelets on the brothers’ wrists and these return with a gift. For seven days the bracelets are hung on the sacred trees or alternatively are thrown into the river. After the transplantation and integration in the Vitoria Garden Collection, this plant is still an object for religious worship. The Hindu community who lives in the surrounding areas keeps the same habit of leaving flowers, fruits, incense and other offerings.
Provided by: Rajnicant Sauchande Daia and Nalini Bai Carsane, Mozambique-born Portuguese.
Present Location: It did not survive the transplanting.
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 later to your demolition, recorded in Lisbon, Loures and London between July 2012 and October 2014.
(G.) Word in Gujarate language.
