Mon-Tha, the imported Buddha-history tree

One of the important plants in the Buddha history, although less known compared to Bodhi tree or Sal tree, is the Mon-Tha tree – a celestial plant. According to the Buddha history, this plant is growing on the heaven and cannot be found on earth. Its flower would fall down to the earth only in eight Buddha-related important events, including when the Buddha reaching the nirvana. The Buddha history also informed that, after the Buddha reachind nirvana for seven days, Mahakasyapa and other sangha were going to Kusinara to grant the audience to the Buddha. Before reaching Kusinara, they saw a man carrying Mon-Tha flower as umbrella to protect the sunlight, so they knew that the Buddha was already reaching the nirvana.

In this present in Thailand, the Mon-Tha name was given to one kind of plant which is known as Egg Magnolia (Talauma candollei, synonym Magnolia liliifera), one of the magnolia plants that resemble of Dwarf Magnolia (Magnolia coco), except that the Egg magnolia has yellow petal while Dwarf magnolia is white. 

Mon-Tha flower, Wat Phra Kaew, Chiang Rai province.

However, Egg Magnolia is not the native plant in Thailand territory (the native Magnolia liliifera in Thailand is the variation obovata (Korth.) Govaerts, known as Boon-Tha in Thai). The native habitat and how the Egg Magnolia came in Thailand are still unclear. One hypothesis indicated that this plant might come from Java (currently Indonesia) and pass through Thailand from the south part of Thailand. This hypothesis was supported by the information in Enau, a Thai literature based on an Indonesian literature “Hikayat Panji Semirang”. In one chapter of Enau, it informed that the Egg Magnolia was firstly come from Java.

Moreover, there are some Thai native plants contain “Mon-Tha” in their name, Mangnolia garrettii (Mon-Tha-Doi) and Magnolia hookeri (Mon-Tha-Ang-Khang). These plants might be the Mon-Tha in the Buddha history. However, the current official “Mon-Tha” is Egg Magnolia tree.