Tran Quoc Pagoda bodhi, the diplomacy tree

This tree is a thank-you note between two countries. On 24 March 1959 Rajendra Prasad, the President of India, planted it at Tran Quoc Pagoda on the shore of West Lake, VnExpress reported. It was a cutting from the Great Bodhi Tree at Bodh Gaya in India, the tree under which the Buddha is said to have reached enlightenment, and it came as a return gift for a tree Ho Chi Minh had given India. Hanoi calls it the diplomacy tree. By the standards of this map it is young, about 67 years old, and its age is one of the few here that comes from a recorded planting rather than an estimate. Nobody has published its girth or height. It earns the stop through its story and its setting, not its size. One practical note. Bodhi cuttings are a tradition here, so the pagoda may hold more than one, and no source says exactly where in the grounds the 1959 tree stands. Look for a plaque, and if you can tell us which trunk it is, please do. Entry is free. The pagoda opens daily from 08:00 to 16:00, and from 06:00 to 18:00 on the first and fifteenth days of each lunar month. A city bus stops at the gate on Thanh Nien road.