Tree of Life and Sacred Trees: A Comparison of Turkish and Chinese Mythology

The subject of this paper is the Tree of Life and the sacred trees, one of the common mythological values in Turkish Mythology and Chinese Mythology. From the first moments of the world, trees are very important place to humans. Both communities thought that the Tree of Life was at the center of the world. For th？s reason, the tree of life has been elevated to mean the center of the world. Trees change according to season, giving fruits, roots of underground; The fact that there are branches on earth has made people think in every aspect. Some societies thought they came from the tree of life and saw it as the creator while some societies thought the tree of life was an instrument to reach God because it reached the ground and the earth. Throughout history, people have accepted different species of trees as holy trees by loading sacred meanings to these trees. In this paper the importance of trees to people are being mentioned. Particularly, Turkish and Chinese mythologies of the Tree of Life and holy trees are discussed. The reason while trees are considered to be sacred and their legendary meanings are also discussed. The approach of the two communities to the tree will be discussed and the situations in which the trees come to the forefront will be exemplified