Sacred Trees in Kurdish Belief: The Wishing Tree and the Holy Grove
- Sherko Sabir
- 10 hours ago
- 13 min read
Introduction
Across Kurdish mythology, folk-belief, and the living faiths, certain trees are held sacred: wise and living beings, dwelling-places of spirits, and bringers of blessing and healing. The sacred tree stands deep in the Kurdish reverence for the living world.
From the wishing-tree hung with cloths and ribbons, to the holy tree of the saint, to the sacred groves once worshipped in the mountains, the reverence for the sacred tree runs through every layer of Kurdish belief. It completes, with the holy fire, the sacred water, and the holy mountain, the great elements of Kurdish nature-reverence.
To know the place of the sacred tree in Kurdish belief is to follow a green thread running through the ages of the Kurdish spiritual world, from the ancient worship of the trees of the forest to the wishing-trees still hung with cloths at the holy sites, a reverence for the living tree as a thing of blessing, wisdom, and the sacred, cherished across the generations.
Contents
The Sacred Tree in Kurdish Belief
In Kurdish mythology, folk-belief, and the living faiths, certain trees are held sacred, revered as wise and living beings, dwelling-places of spirits, and bringers of blessing and healing. Across the rich body of Kurdish belief, the tree is held in deep reverence: as a sacred and living being, possessed of a spiritual essence; as a dwelling-place of spirits and holy powers; as a bringer of blessing, healing, and the granting of wishes; and as a conduit, in the old belief, between the earthly and the divine. This reverence runs through every layer of the Kurdish spiritual world, from the ancient worship of the trees of the forest, recorded among the mountain peoples, to the living folk-customs of the wishing-tree and the holy tree of the saint, honoured to this day. The sacred tree stands, alongside the holy fire, the sacred water, and the holy mountain, among the great elements through which the Kurds have revered the natural world as sacred. As a living and sacred being at the heart of the Kurdish reverence for the natural world, the sacred tree holds a place of deep and enduring importance. To understand the reverence for the sacred tree is to understand the depth of the Kurdish bond with the living world.
Why Trees Are Sacred
Trees are held sacred in Kurdish belief as wise and living beings possessed of a spiritual essence, as dwelling-places of spirits and holy powers, as bringers of blessing and healing, and as a link between the earthly and the divine.
The sacredness of trees in Kurdish belief flows from several deep and ancient meanings. First, the tree is revered as a wise and living being, possessed of a unique spiritual essence, a thing of life and power deserving of reverence. Second, the tree is held to be a dwelling-place of spirits and holy powers, the home of unseen beings, whether spirits of nature, holy powers, or, in the folk-belief, the guardian spirits who haunt certain trees. Third, the tree is a bringer of blessing, healing, and the granting of wishes, sought for the curing of ills, the fulfilling of desires, and the blessing of those who honour it. And fourth, in the old belief, the tree is a conduit between the earthly and the divine realms, a living link between the world of people and the world of the sacred. Together, these meanings, the living and wise being, the dwelling of spirits, the bringer of blessing, and the link to the divine, make the tree sacred in the deepest sense to the Kurdish imagination. It is for these reasons that certain trees hold so sacred a place in Kurdish belief, honoured through rituals, offerings, and prayers.
Key Takeaways
In Kurdish belief, certain trees are held sacred as wise and living beings.
The sacred tree is seen as a dwelling-place of spirits and holy powers.
Trees are honoured for blessing, healing, and the granting of wishes.
The wishing-tree is hung with cloths and ribbons tied by the faithful.
The ancient worship of trees is recorded among the mountain peoples of Kurdistan.
The sacred tree completes, with fire, water, and the mountain, the elements of Kurdish nature-reverence.
Quick Facts
Subject: The sacred meaning of trees in Kurdish belief
Tree as: A wise living being, dwelling of spirits, bringer of blessing
Ancient roots: The worship of trees recorded among the mountain peoples
Wishing tree: The Dara Mirazan, the tree of wishes, hung with cloths
The custom: Tying a cloth or ribbon to the tree for blessing or healing
Tree pirs: Holy trees honoured as the trees of saints or holy ones
Dwelling of spirits: Trees held to be haunted by guardian spirits
The Tree of Life: An ancient and enduring sacred-tree motif
Living faiths: Tree-reverence among the Reya Heqi and other Kurds
Place: A green thread in the Kurdish reverence for the living world
The Ancient Worship of Trees
The reverence for sacred trees in the Kurdish world reaches back to ancient times, when, as travellers and writers recorded, the worship of trees and the powers of nature was widespread among the peoples of the Kurdish mountains.
The reverence for sacred trees in Kurdish belief reaches back to ancient times, to the deep nature-reverence of the peoples of the Kurdish mountains. Travellers, writers, and scholars across the centuries recorded the worship of trees among the Kurds and the persistence of ancient beliefs in the sacredness of the natural world. It was recorded that in the mountains of Kurdistan there were peoples who held the trees of their forests sacred and revered them, and writers observed that the worship of trees and water in Kurdistan was, in their words, immeasurable, and that the belief in the sacredness of certain trees and springs, and in the guardian spirits that haunted them, had not disappeared but lived on. Scholars studying the religious patterns of the Kurdistan region from late antiquity to modern times have shown that the sacred tree, alongside the sacred mountain and the holy spring, was a recurring and enduring part of the sacred landscape of the region, honoured across the ages. This ancient and enduring reverence for the sacred tree is the deep root from which the living Kurdish customs of the holy tree have grown. It reflects the depth of the Kurdish bond with the living world and the persistence of the ancient nature-reverence. From these ancient roots flows the living reverence for the sacred tree in the Kurdish world.
The Wishing Tree and the Tying of Cloths
The most beloved of the living customs of the sacred tree is the wishing-tree, the Dara Mirazan, hung with cloths and ribbons tied by the faithful, each a wish or a prayer for blessing and healing.
The most beloved and enduring of the living customs surrounding the sacred tree is the wishing-tree, known in the Kurdish tongue as the Dara Mirazan, the tree of wishes. At such a holy tree, often growing at a shrine or sacred site, the faithful tie pieces of cloth or coloured ribbons to the branches, each cloth a wish, a prayer, or a hope tied to the tree, for blessing, for healing, for the granting of a desire, or for protection. In the understanding of the custom, the one who ties the cloth ties a part of themselves to the holy tree, binding their wish or their need to its sacred power, that it may be granted or that healing may come. The sight of a holy tree hung with many cloths and ribbons, fluttering in the wind, is among the most beloved and recognisable images of Kurdish folk-belief, each cloth a token of a wish or a prayer, a sign of the living reverence for the sacred tree. This custom of the wishing-tree and the tying of cloths is the most cherished living expression of the reverence for the sacred tree in the Kurdish world. It is kept, to this day, at holy trees across the Kurdish lands, a living link to the ancient reverence for the sacred tree.
The Tree as Dwelling of Spirits
The sacred tree is held, in Kurdish folk-belief, to be a dwelling-place of spirits and holy powers, whether the guardian spirits of folk-belief, sometimes named with the divs, or the holy powers and saints of the sacred sites.
Among the deepest of the meanings of the sacred tree in Kurdish belief is that it is a dwelling-place of spirits and holy powers. In the folk-belief recorded across the Kurdish world, it was held that certain trees were haunted or inhabited by unseen spirits, the guardian spirits of the tree, sometimes spoken of with the names used also for the divs, the spirits and demons of folk-belief, whether held to be benevolent or to be feared. Such trees were regarded with awe and reverence, and it was believed that to harm them, or even to harm a bird perched upon a holy tree, might bring misfortune or death, so charged were they with unseen power. In the living faiths and at the holy sites, the sacred tree is bound up rather with the holy powers and the saints: the tree of a saint, the holy tree at a shrine, honoured as a place where the sacred is near and blessing may be found. Whether as the dwelling of the guardian spirits of folk-belief or as the holy tree of the saint, the sacred tree is held to be charged with the unseen and the sacred, a living thing in which spirits or holy powers dwell. This sense of the tree as a dwelling of spirits and holy powers reflects the deep folk-reverence for the sacred tree as a thing charged with the unseen. It is among the most ancient and enduring of the beliefs surrounding the holy tree.
The Holy Tree and the Sacred Grove
Beyond the single holy tree stand the sacred groves and the great Tree of Life, the ancient and enduring motifs of the sacred wood and the cosmic tree, kindred to the world-trees of the wider Iranic and regional traditions, such as the wondrous tree on which the Simurgh is said to dwell.
Beyond the single holy tree, the reverence for the sacred tree takes in the sacred grove and the great Tree of Life. In ancient times, as was recorded, there were sacred groves and woods in the Kurdish mountains, held holy and revered, where the peoples honoured the trees and the powers of nature. And in the wider mythological imagination, there stands the motif of the Tree of Life, the great and sacred tree, a motif ancient and enduring in the Kurdish and wider Iranic world, kindred to the world-trees and wondrous trees of the region's mythology, such as the great tree on which the Simurgh, the wondrous bird of Iranic legend, is said to dwell, and the marvellous tree of the ancient tradition that bore the seeds of all plants, the tree of all remedies. These greater forms of the sacred tree, the holy grove and the Tree of Life, reflect the depth and antiquity of the reverence for the tree in the Kurdish and wider Iranic imagination, reaching from the single wishing-tree at the shrine to the cosmic tree at the heart of the world. The sacred grove and the Tree of Life are the grandest expressions of the reverence for the sacred tree. They reflect the deep place of the tree in the Kurdish and Iranic vision of the sacred living world.
Meaning and Significance
The sacred tree embodies a green thread running through the whole of the Kurdish spiritual world, from the ancient worship of the trees of the forest, through the beloved custom of the wishing-tree and the belief in the tree as a dwelling of spirits, to the sacred grove and the Tree of Life. It completes, with the holy fire, the sacred water, and the holy mountain, the great elements through which the Kurds have revered the natural world as sacred and charged with the divine.
The reverence for the sacred tree reflects, too, the deep nature-spirituality of the Kurdish world, the sense, running from the most ancient traditions to the living faiths and folk-beliefs, that the natural world, its trees, its waters, its fires, and its mountains, is sacred, alive, and bound up with the divine and the Creator. The tree, as a living and wise being, holds a place of special reverence within this nature-spirituality, honoured as a sacred living thing across the ages and the faiths. In all this, the sacred tree is among the most beloved and significant elements of Kurdish belief, the living and sacred being, the bringer of blessing, that stands deep in the Kurdish reverence for the living world. The bond of the Kurds with the sacred tree, kept most beloved in the wishing-trees hung with cloths at the holy sites, is among the deepest and most beautiful features of their spiritual heritage, a reverence for the living tree cherished across the generations.
Sacred Trees and the Kurds
The sacred tree holds a beloved and central place in the Kurdish reverence for the living world, honoured from the ancient worship of the trees of the forest to the wishing-trees still hung with cloths at the holy sites of the Kurdish lands.
The sacred tree is bound up with the deep nature-reverence of the Kurdish people, a people long dwelling among the trees and forests of their mountain homeland, where, as has been recorded, every tree may have its story and every village its trees of meeting and of memory. To the Kurds, certain trees have been held sacred as living and wise beings, dwellings of spirits, and bringers of blessing and healing, revered from the ancient worship of the trees of the forest, through the living custom of the wishing-tree hung with cloths, to the holy trees of the saints and the sacred sites. In presenting the sacred tree, we honour this deep bond and the beloved place of the holy tree in the spiritual heritage of the Kurdish people, drawing together the threads of tree-reverence that run from the ancient nature-worship to the living wishing-trees of today. The sacred tree is, in the end, among the most beloved and living expressions of the Kurdish reverence for the natural world, the holy and living tree at the heart of the Kurdish bond with the living earth.
Debates and Misconceptions
Is the reverence for sacred trees a form of idolatry or tree-worship? This must be understood with care and honesty. In ancient times, as was recorded, there were peoples in the Kurdish mountains who genuinely worshipped the trees of their forests, and the old nature-worship held the trees themselves to be sacred and powerful. In the living folk-custom and the living faiths, however, the reverence for the holy tree is best understood as a folk-reverence and a seeking of blessing, woven into faiths that are, in the main, monotheistic: the wishing-tree and the holy tree of the saint are honoured as places where blessing and healing may be found, within a faith in one God and the Creator, rather than as gods in themselves. The honest framing is to recognise both the ancient tree-worship recorded in history and the folk-reverence of the living custom, held within the wider faiths.
Are the tree-spirits the same as the demons of myth? Not exactly, and we present this with care. In the folk-belief, certain trees were held to be haunted by guardian spirits, sometimes spoken of with the names used also for the divs, the spirits and demons of myth, while in the living faiths the holy tree is bound up rather with the holy powers and the saints. The folk-belief in the spirits of the trees is best understood as part of the rich and varied world of Kurdish folk-belief about the spirits of nature, rather than as a fixed doctrine. The honest framing is to present the tree-spirits as a living folk-belief, varied in the telling, distinct from the holy trees of the saints in the living faiths.
Is the reverence for sacred trees uniquely Kurdish? No. The reverence for sacred trees is found among many peoples of the world, ancient and modern, from the world-trees of the Iranic, Norse, and other mythologies to the holy trees and wishing-trees of many living traditions. The Kurds share in this wide human reverence for the sacred tree, kindred above all to the nature-reverence of the wider Iranic and regional world. What is distinctive is the rich texture of the Kurdish tree-reverence, the wishing-tree hung with cloths, the tree pirs, and the tree-spirits of the folk-belief, woven into the particular spiritual world of the Kurds. The honest framing recognises both the wider reverence for sacred trees and the distinctive forms it takes in the Kurdish world.
Related Topics
Sacred Water: the holy springs and waters, kindred element of nature-reverence
Sacred Fire: the holy flame of the Kurdish world
Sacred Mountains: the holy heights of the Kurdish world
The Simurgh: the wondrous bird that dwells in the great tree
The Tree of All Remedies: the marvellous tree of healing of Iranic myth
Xidir Nabi: the green spirit of the living and growing world
The Divs: the spirits and demons of Kurdish folk-belief
Newroz: the festival of spring and the renewal of life
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are trees sacred in Kurdish belief?
Certain trees are held sacred as wise and living beings possessed of a spiritual essence; as dwelling-places of spirits and holy powers; as bringers of blessing, healing, and the granting of wishes; and, in the old belief, as a conduit between the earthly and the divine realms. Together these meanings make the sacred tree a thing of deep reverence, honoured through rituals, offerings, and prayers across the Kurdish world.
What is a wishing-tree?
The wishing-tree, known in Kurdish as the Dara Mirazan, the tree of wishes, is a holy tree, often growing at a shrine or sacred site, to which the faithful tie pieces of cloth or coloured ribbons, each a wish, a prayer, or a hope for blessing, healing, or protection. In the understanding of the custom, the one who ties the cloth ties a part of themselves to the holy tree, binding their wish to its sacred power. It is the most beloved living custom of the sacred tree.
Why do people tie cloths to sacred trees?
The tying of cloths or ribbons to a sacred tree is a way of binding a wish, a prayer, or a need to the holy tree and its sacred power, that it may be granted or that healing may come. The one who ties the cloth ties, in the understanding of the custom, a part of themselves to the tree. The sight of a holy tree hung with many fluttering cloths, each a token of a wish, is among the most recognisable images of Kurdish folk-belief.
Are sacred trees thought to be home to spirits?
Yes. In Kurdish folk-belief, certain trees were held to be haunted or inhabited by unseen spirits, the guardian spirits of the tree, sometimes spoken of with names used also for the divs, the spirits and demons of folk-belief. Such trees were regarded with awe, and it was believed that to harm them might bring misfortune. In the living faiths, the holy tree is bound up rather with the holy powers and the saints, honoured as a place where the sacred is near.
Did the Kurds worship trees?
In ancient times, as travellers and writers recorded, there were peoples in the Kurdish mountains who genuinely worshipped the trees of their forests, and the old nature-worship held trees to be sacred and powerful. In the living folk-custom and the living faiths, the reverence for the holy tree is best understood as a folk-reverence and a seeking of blessing, held within faiths that are, in the main, monotheistic, rather than as the worship of trees as gods.
Is the sacred tree found in other cultures?
Yes. The reverence for sacred trees is found among many peoples of the world, from the world-trees of the Iranic, Norse, and other mythologies to the holy trees and wishing-trees of many living traditions. The Kurds share in this wide human reverence, kindred above all to the nature-reverence of the wider Iranic world. What is distinctive is the rich texture of the Kurdish tree-reverence, the wishing-tree, the tree pirs, and the tree-spirits of folk-belief.
References and Further Reading
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