"Tree of life" or "World tree" (Yggdrasil) in aboriginal mythology? Or Japanese?

Not sure where to look, so since we have experts like @hansioux here I’ll try my luck:

Is this idea “tree of life” or “World Tree” somehow occuring in Taiwanese aboriginal stories? Or Japanese?

That idea seems to occur in many mythologies of many cultures. It seems to typically involve a tree as the “center of the world”, sometimes offering perks like eternal life, sometimes connecting the world and underworld, and sometimes having some special animals living in branches and/or roots.

Background is just some curiosity from my work. We recently started design of a new IC, the predecessors of which traditionally used European, Greek, Nordic mythology names as code names (Poseidon, Teutates, Aglauros, …). So someone in Germany came up with “Yggdrasil” for this one, and I struggled to explain the meaning of that word to my Taiwanese team members.

Looking a bit into the meaning, on Wikipedia and other places, I found that this idea or theme seems to exist in the mythologies of many of the involved engineers’ cultures (European, north/south American, Persian, Turkic, …) - except for our Japanese engineer colleagues. Also the Taiwanese (Han/Hakka) engineers didn’t initially recognise any themes like this, but we found that at least in Chinese mythology there is the “Fusang / 扶桑” tree that seems similar (with the bird/s that carry the sun/s across the sky during the day testing in the branches).

Now just wondering if this theme also appears in the Taiwan aboriginal mythology somehow.

I wouldn’t describe Yggdrasil as a tree of life. It’s more a stand-in for the creation as a whole. It is THE central tree that connects the nine realms and houses a metric ton of places and persons.

Having sacred trees is common around the whole globe while the concept of a central tree is more likely to be found in northern Europe.

1 Like

Agree, there seem to be quite different ideas summarised under “Tree of life”. I guess “World Tree” is closer to Yggdrasil… I changed the first post a bit.

1 Like

In Mandarin it’s just called 世界(之)樹. I think most younger people would know the term from anime. We’ve got plenty of sacred trees but don’t think any of them is similar to the concept of Yggdrasil.

1 Like

I thought the tree of life was a universal motif, and archetype that people see in dreams.

1 Like

Haha Right, one German co-worker knew Yggdrasil as the name of one end boss in a Japanese computer game…

1 Like

There are different versions of a world tree in different cultures. I think the reconstructed original aboriginal creation myth, the first two humans were created by a tree that’s half wood half stone after the great flood, which gave birth to a pair of brother and sister through a giant tree hole, and they had to overcome obstacles (the fact that they are siblings) to populate the world.

As a result, many tribes would have an ancestral tree or an ancestral rock that they worship.

In some later varieties of the myth, such as the creation story from Tsou, people came from a god shaking this tree, and the falling leaves became people. Others replaced giant stone half stone tree with a separate tree and rock, or just the rock or just the tree, or replaced the tree with bamboo.

The Pangcah (Amis) has a particular complicated theology, that involves at least 3 epochs, with men being recreated by different generations of gods after each great floods (also caused by the gods, sometimes in order to punish men). The first time, men were created by the sea goddess Donge using bamboo and rock. These first men does not die of old age. The second time, men were created by Tatahciw using tree branches. These second generation of men would die, but would resurrect after death. The current generation of men were created by Masera (god of soil) using either rock or soil.

So the tree usually is just to give birth to men, not to support the world or give birth to all live as in other cultures.

4 Likes

By the way, in Chinese mythology, aside from hû-song 扶桑, there is also kiàn-bo̍k (建木) which is either a natural giant tree, or a tree like structure built by the Yellow Emperor for him and his administer to travel up into the heavens.

4 Likes

The first story sounds a bit like 伏羲女媧. But I’ve also heard many similar stories from different cultures. Forgive me if I don’t remember the details, I read them as a kid.

1 Like

In Norse mythology the first humans Ask and Embla were created by Odin and his brothers Vili and Ve from driftwood.

Yggdrasil means Odin’s Horse and is an euphemism for the Gallows. Odin sacrificed himself on the tree in order to gain more knowledge.

3 Likes

Thanks a lot for the very comprehensive overview. I see… So a tree is involved in Taiwan (some) aboriginal mythologies, but only in the very beginning. Thanks so much for satisfying my curiosity :bowing_man:

Interesting, so you recall that this story also contains s tree somehow?

Haha seems my colleagues chose a great name.

Dies anyone here have any insight into Japanese mythology? My Japanese colleagues didn’t recall anything similar, and I’m not very confident in my internet search skills in that direction…

There was a tree in the version that I heard of but it’s just… a tree. nothing special lol

The story is about how a flood destroyed everything and the only “human” left were brother and sister. They have to reproduce for the sake of “mankind”. So the sister tried to resist a bit in the beginning and told the brother they’d get married if he catch her. And that’s the first marriage of mankind.

I think they run around a tree or something during that process. Like I said, it’s just… a tree lol.

Note that 伏羲 and 女媧 aren’t actually human. They’re god and goddess who’s half human half snake. The story of 伏羲女媧could date back thousands of years ago, and there’s ancient tapestries of 伏羲女媧交尾圖. Also in the famous T型帛畫 of 馬王堆漢墓, you can see the motives of 伏羲女媧.

1 Like

Well I don’t know much about Japanese mythology, but some say that the sacred tree you mentioned before, 扶桑, grew in Japan. The tree 扶桑 was where the sun (crows) lives. And Japan was also called 扶桑 in the Chinese language. 日本, 日出之國。you can see the relation.

1 Like

It is, except that we actually don’t get early written down Han versions of the mythical stories about Ho̍k-hi (伏羲) and Lú-o (女媧). We get written family line and depictions of them being half man half snake, entangled and possibly being siblings.

The story of them hiding in a bottle gourd to survive the flood myth seems to be a later borrowing from the flood myths found in Southern China, from the Hmong–Mien or Kra-Dai speaking peoples.

Some recent scholars say Ho̍k-hi is the same thing as Phuân-kóo (盤古) and is the same thing as Phuân-hôo (盤瓠). The original motif of their myths involves being born from a bottle gourd and restarting the word. In the version of Phuân-hôo though, the person is a man with a dog’s head.

That part is slightly different from most Aboriginal myths, but admittedly, the motif of being born from a plant is the same.

2 Likes