By Gideon L Kharkongor
Cherry blossom in northeastern India, particularly around Shillong, is the species called Prunuscerasoides. It is also known as Wild Himalayan Cherry and it blossoms in autumn. The fruits are inedible but in perfect bloom the trees are full of pastel-hue pink and soft white blossoms.
Cherry Blossom is known in Hindi as padma or padmakashtha and the local name in Meghalaya (Khasi) is Dieng Sohїongkrem.
In Meghalaya, the cherry blossom was introduced by the Britishers and later on the missionaries, while travelling around the globe, brought cherry seedlings and planted them around Shillong and other places in the periphery of Shillong.
In the later years, these cherry seeds were taken to different parts of the state. The cherry blossom is also one of the species that has been included in the Social Forestry by the Department of Forest and Environment. Hence, we see the new cherry blossom trees blooming in the last few years across the state. The Cherry Blossom is a handsome middle sized (of about 15 mts high) deciduous tree. It is distributed in Khasi Hills (up to an altitude of 6,000 ft) of Meghalaya and its range extends in the Himalayas from Himachal Pradesh to South West China, Myanmar and Thailand.
The tree sheds its leaves towards the end of the rainy season. Flowers are usually pink in colour, fading into white, appearing without or with leaves. There are two types of cherries — one edible (fruits) and the other, ornamental (flowers).
The probable origin of this variety of the cherry is the Himalayas. The wood is hard, strong, durable and the branches make excellent walking sticks. The fruits give a dark green dye and the seeds are used for manufacturing necklaces. The Cherry Blossom, when in full bloom, is a majestic sight to behold.
Though no enumeration has been done, the forest official of the state has put the number as low as 2000 trees in Shillong. Between 2015 and 2017 the State Forest Department planted about 5,000 cherry trees in and around Shillong. These include avenue plantations and along the highway passing through Shillong. According to a forest official it is said that in the next three to five years the cherry blossom trees will be in full bloom.
The Cherry Blossom Festival started in 2016 has witnessed the visit of a large number of tourists coming from other states of India and from abroad. Such an important festival would definitely boost up the tourism industry in the state. Such festivals help in restoring the pristine environment around Shillong which has seen sprawling of ‘concrete jungles’ in the past few years.
The festival will also showcase, preserve and promote the rich art, culture, environment and biodiversity of the state. This festival celebrates the autumn cherry blossoms with several community events including guided night walks under illuminated cherry blossoms, live musical events, a beauty pageant and stalls showcasing the cuisine, arts and craft of the region. Alongside, programmes like photography competitions, bicycle rallies, storytelling sessions and sports showcase the talent of the youth during the festival.
Cherry blossom normally blooms during the onset of the cold season. At a micro level, the blooming of the flowers can be seen increasing at the higher altitude. Hence, there is no hesitation in saying that the flowering of the trees can be first seen at Upper Shillong because of its colder climate and then spreads to the core of the city. The delay in flowering may also be attributed to climate change as many institutions like the Institute of Bio-Resources and Sustainable Development (Manipur) has found that the unique bio-resource of the late flowering of the cherries has come as indicator of climate change.
A cherry blossom (or commonly known in Japan as sakura) is the flower of any of several trees of genus Prunus, particularly the Japanese cherry, Prunusserrulata.
Prunusserrulata or Japanese Cherry, also called Hill Cherry, Oriental Cherry or East Asian Cherry, is a species of cherry native to Japan, Korea and China and is used for its spring cherry blossom displays and festivals.
The Prunusserrulata is a small deciduous tree of short single trunk with a dense crown reaching a height of 26–39 feet. The smooth bark is chestnut-brown with prominent horizontal lenticels. The leaves are simple, ovate-lanceolate, 5–13 cm long and 3–6 cm broad, with short petioles and the serrated or doubly serrated margins. The leaves are arranged alternately. At the end of autumn, the green leaves turn yellow, red or crimson. Many of the varieties that have been cultivated for ornamental use do not produce fruits. Edible cherries generally come from cultivars of the related species Prunusavium and Prunuscerasus. Cherry blossom is also closely related to the Prunus trees such as the almond, peach, plum and apricot and more distantly to apples, pears and roses.
There are about 200 cultivars or varieties of the sakura or the cherry blossom trees. Currently it is widely distributed, especially in the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere including Japan, Taiwan, Korea, China, West Siberia, Iran, Pakistan, India, Canada, and the United States. Along with the chrysanthemum, the cherry blossom is considered the national flower of Japan. It is found in the Himalayan states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Sikkim, North Bengal and North East India especially in Meghalaya. Temple Towns like Kalpa, Sangla and Narkanda have cherry blossom during spring and their flowers are often offered to appease the gods.
In Japan, the cherry blossom symbolises clouds due to their nature of blooming en masse, besides being an enduring metaphor for the ephemeral nature of life — an aspect of Japanese cultural tradition that is often associated with Buddhist influence. This is embodied in the concept of mono no aware which literally means ‘the pathos of things’ and also translated as ‘an empathy toward things’.
The Japanese have the Festival of Hanami or the Cherry Blossom viewing where people would come out of their homes and enjoy the viewing of the flowers for hours together. The blooming of the flowers is during the spring time where it also coincides with the opening of schools and offices in Japan while in Meghalaya it coincides with the 100 Drums Festival or the Wangala dance and the Shad Pomblang or Shad Nongkrem.
During World War II, cherry blossom was used to motivate the Japanese people, to stoke up the spirit of nationalism and militarism among the populace. Even prior to the war, the Cherry Blossom was used in propaganda to inspire the ‘Japanese spirit’ who was ‘ready like the myriad cherry blossoms to scatter’.
A cherry blossom painted on the side of the bomber symbolised the intensity and brevity of life. In this way, the aesthetic association was altered such that falling cherry petals came to represent the sacrifice of the youth in suicide missions to honour the emperor. The first kamikaze unit had a subunit called Yamazakura or wild cherry blossom.
A Japanese folk story of the Sakura or cherry blossom tree says that once there was a handsome boy called a Natsume who met Sakura, a spirit which lived beside a beautiful tree that glowed by the moonlight and bloomed beautifully. Natsume and Sakura got married but soon Sakura’s time on earth came to an end. While leaving, she gave Natsume a seed and promised to remain by his side forever. From then on, the tree was called Sakura or cherry blossom tree.
(The author is an associate professor at
St Edmund’s College)
Photos: Bertrand Dkhar & Rajesh Dutta