Owls and hindu culture, NeemTree of Goddess Lakshmi

[JANAKI TURAGA]

Hi all,
West Bengal celebrates owls as vahana of goddess Lakshmi. The crafts
people make wooden owls made of wood of Neem(Azadirachta indica) and
Gamhar(Gmelina arborea) trees. Reportedly Neem is the sacred wood
associated with Goddess Lakshmi. These owl statues are worshipped
along with Goddess Lakshmi in homes in West Bengal.
These owl statues are either fully painted or partly painted. But in
either form, they are stunning. The size ranges from three inch to
couple of feet.
I happened to see these wooden owls in a craftsperson's stall who had
come from West Bengal to sell his wares in Dilli Haat. A special
exhibition of crafts of West Bengal is currently on at Dilli Haat, INA
near the open air theatre.
This special West Bengal exhibition will be on until 30th, June, 2014.
These days owls are in fashion as jewellery items, and as brass
decorative pieces.
But come Diwali, and owls have to flee for their lives!!!
It is intriguing that we have cultures that celebrate and yet destroy
birds and animals at the same time.
Are there other trees whose wood is preferred and is used for making
temples etc. of Gods or statues of gods and goddesses? Would
appreciate any input on this.
Kind Regards
Janaki

[J.M. Garg]

Thanks, Janaki.

I am really finding lot of wonderful posts from you.

Janaki

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With regards,
J.M.Garg

'Creating awareness of Indian Flora & Fauna'
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[JANAKI TURAGA]

Thank you Garg ji, for your kind words.

> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jmgarg1>

> The whole world uses my Image Resource

> <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:J.M.Garg> of more than a

> thousand species & eight thousand images of Birds, Butterflies, Plants etc.
> (arranged alphabetically & place-wise). You can also use them for free as
> per Creative Commons license attached with each image.
>
> For identification, learning, discussion & documentation of Indian Flora,
> please visit/ join our Efloraofindia Google e-group

> <https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/indiantreepix> (largest in the

> world- around 2350 members & 1,90,000 messages on 31/5/14) or Efloraofindia

> website <https://sites.google.com/site/efloraofindia/> (with a species

> database of more than 9500 species & 1,90,000 images). Winner of Wipro-NFS
> Sparrow Awards 2014 for efloraofindia

> <https://sites.google.com/site/efloraofindia/award-for-efloraofindia>.

[Neha.FORREST]

Hello Janaki,

I read your very interesting post and would like to add about trees whose wood is preferred and is used for making temples.
 The trees which we came to my knowledge for making temples are -
1. Pterocarpus marsupium / Indian Kino Tree

2. Artocarpus heterophyllus / Jackfruit Tree

3. Dalbergia latifolia / Rosewood

4. Tectona grandis / Saag

5. Magnolia champaca / Sonchampa
6.  Artocarpus hirsutus / Wild Jackfruit

Thanks

Warm Regards

Neha Singh

www.forrest-india.org

www.forrest-ecology.org