CULTURAL AND WILD PLANTS
Bamboo. Legends, myths, symbolism, description, cultivation, methods of application Directory / Cultivated and wild plants Content
Bamboo, Bambusa. Photos of the plant, basic scientific information, legends, myths, symbolism
Basic scientific information, legends, myths, symbolism Sort by: Bamboo (Bambusa) Family: Cereals (Poaceae) Origin: Bamboo is the oldest plant on earth. It comes from the tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, South and Central America, Africa, Australia and Oceania. Bamboo has a rich history of cultural uses in Asia, including use for construction, food, and plumbing. Area: Bamboo grows in many parts of the world, especially in tropical and subtropical regions. The largest producers are China, India, Indonesia and Brazil. Chemical composition: Bamboo consists predominantly of cellulose, which is the main component of the stems. It also contains linoleic acid, amino acids, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. Economic value: Bamboo is widely used in culture and economy. It is used for construction, furniture, paper, textiles, tableware, musical instruments, writing instruments, packaging and many other uses. Bamboo is also a food item in some cultures, and its young shoots and leaves are used in cooking. Bamboo forests are of great ecological importance, they retain soil and water, preventing landslides and drought, and are home to many animal species. Legends, myths, symbolism: In Chinese culture, bamboo is considered a symbol of nobility and spirituality. It is also associated with Chinese scholars and writers as it was used for writing on paper. In Japanese culture, bamboo is associated with grace and subtlety. It is also used in traditional Japanese building and art. In Korea, bamboo symbolizes vitality, abundance and longevity. It is often used as decoration and building material. Bamboo is also associated with strength and durability in various cultures around the world. In some countries, bamboo is considered a symbol of courage and fighting spirit.
Bamboo, Bambusa. Description, illustrations of the plant Bamboo. Legends, myths, history Many positive symbolic meanings are associated with bamboo. It is a symbol of grace, constancy, flexibility, good breeding and friendship. Bamboo is evergreen, so it symbolizes longevity and blooming old age. In the East, bamboo is compared to a person who bows before difficulties, but does not back down before them. In China, this plant personifies longevity and filial virtue, in India - friendship. Filipinos plant bamboo crosses on plantations as a talisman that attracts good luck. Along with plum and pine, bamboo is a symbol of the land of the rising sun. According to the ideas of the Japanese, bamboo represents devotion, truthfulness and purity. Before the New Year, bundles of pine branches and bamboo shoots appear on every front door in Japan, which should bring happiness to the house in the coming year. For the Japanese, a bamboo stick with the image of a swallow represents friendship, and with a crane - long life and happiness. In Japan, there is a legend about the miniature girl Kaguya-hime, which the lumberjack Taketori Okina found in the trunk of the bamboo he cut down. Interestingly, the flowering of bamboo in some cultures is interpreted as a harbinger of famine. This is due to the fact that the plant blooms very rarely, and its seeds are used in food, as a rule, only in times of famine. Author: Martyanova L.M.
Bamboo. Myths, traditions, symbolism
A plant that plays a large role in East Asian art and symbolism; its hollow trunk symbolizes modesty, and its evergreen invariance and "thinness" - old age. Pieces of bamboo placed in the fire burst with a loud crack and drive out evil spirits. The bamboo branch is an attribute of the meek Kuan-yin, the goddess of mercy. Therefore, bamboo is readily depicted (along with chrysanthemums, pines and plum blossoms) in ink drawings. The knots on the stem were often seen as steps on the way to higher knowledge. In Japan, young bamboo shoots breaking out of the ground symbolize eternal youth and indomitable strength. Author: Biedermann G.
Bamboo, Bambusa. Classification, synonyms, botanical description, nutritional value, cultivation In China, Japan, India, young sprouts of various types of bamboo are used for food. They canned, boiled add to salads. In China, edible bamboo species are: Phyllostachys mitis A. 1 C. Riviere and Ph. pubescens Houzeau. Ph. is common in Manchuria. puberuda Makino. Bambusa vulgaris Schrader also serves as a sprout vegetable. Species Dendrocalamus Brandisii Kurz. and D. Hamittoni Nees et Arn., as well as D. strictus Nees, are cultivated in India for their seeds and young shoots, which are used as food. Author: Ipatiev A.N.
Bamboo, a relative of oats. Featured article A stylized image of bamboo has been placed on the national emblem of Vietnam. Entire bamboo forests grow in this country. However, it would be more accurate to say - fields. Because cereals do not grow in forests, but in fields. And bamboo is a cereal, like some kind of millet. And its flowers look like a nondescript gray panicle, like, say, wheatgrass. And the stalk of bamboo, like, for example, oats, is a straw, only very large, up to 40 meters in height and up to 30 centimeters in width. Just like in timothy grass or bluegrass meadow, this culm, which one would like to call a trunk, is empty inside and is divided by nodal rings-partitions into several cavities. But at the end of the stem-straw, the bamboo grows numerous branches, which makes it look like a tree. This is what distinguishes the tree-like grass called bamboo from the grassy grass called foxtail. And bamboo differs from other cereals in its absolutely amazing growth rate: in a day, young bamboo shoots increase in length by more than 20 centimeters. It turns out, almost a centimeter per hour. As early as the beginning of the XNUMXth century, bamboo served judicial and corrective purposes in China: for various violations, the guilty were beaten on the heels with bamboo sticks: because of the voids inside the stem, they are very light, and thanks to dense wood and transverse partitions, they are unusually strong. For what they just did not use and use bamboo in China! A XNUMXth-century researcher wrote: "Everything that is made in China from bamboo cannot be counted: dishes, furniture, musical instruments, chopsticks, hats, lanterns, fans, mats, ropes, instruments of punishment." There is probably not a single plant in the whole world that would be used for as many purposes as bamboo. The Chinese even make pillows out of bamboo. First, a part of the stem-stem is cut along - by the way, bamboo is easily cut along, not like across. The tube is bent. The resulting thin plate is slightly bent around the edges, so that something like legs is obtained. Such headrests are very convenient, especially in summer, when the heat makes it unpleasant to touch anything soft and warm: bamboo pillows are always cool and resilient. And also easy. Going on a long journey, Chinese peasants and artisans have long taken them with them: if you get tired, lie down in the shade of some wonderful plant, or at least in a bamboo grove, put your head on a stand - and rest yourself in complete comfort. But how, it is interesting to know, unbend and bend bamboo plates? Although bamboo is very durable, it is easy to work with. It can easily be given any shape. To do this, the plate just needs to be heated over a fire - and it will become soft, like plasticine. Unbend and bend as you wish. Having cooled down, the bamboo will forever retain the outlines given to it. When heating the plate, one should, of course, be a little careful, but there is no need to worry too much. Bamboo is quite resistant to fire - although it is a straw, it does not flare up like straw. And this property of a wonderful plant finds its application in practice. The indigenous inhabitants of the Pacific Islands - bamboo also grows there - make vessels from it in which they cook hot food. To do this, you just need to cut off a piece of wood straw that is necessary in height and remove all the upper partitions from it, except for the lower one: it will be the bottom. Then water is poured into the vessel, the necessary products are put (for example, shoots of young bamboo, from which, according to the islanders, a very tasty stew is obtained) and put on fire. Bamboo, although slightly charred, does not burn through. Since we are talking about food, we will mention that even without any cooking, young shoots, still soft and juicy, are eaten. And not only bamboo bears, which exclusively feed on this, but also people. And in China, bamboo sprouts are used to make "achar" sweets, a favorite delicacy of many.
Young shoots differ from adult bamboo not only in edibility: they burn beautifully. At the same time, a terrible crack is heard, reminiscent of shooting - these are the transverse membranes of the straws bursting, so much so that it seems that the eardrums will burst. In Japan, a historical tradition connected with this has been preserved. In ancient times, the tribes of the northerners, on whose lands bamboo did not grow, attacked the southern territories, where it was found everywhere. The northerners pressed the southerners day after day, week after week, and they retreated. One day, hungry, wounded southerners took refuge in the forest. They kindled a fire. Went to sleep. Only the sentry did not sleep. Suddenly, in the flashes of a fire, he saw that their camp was surrounded on all sides by ferocious northerners. There was no time to prepare for a rebuff and it was impossible: the enemies got too close, the southerners slept too soundly. How to be? They say that a drowning man clutches at straws. But bamboo is straw! The sentry drew his sword and instantly cut off a whole armful of young bamboo branches. He cut it off and threw it into the fire. Fiery tongues licked the abandoned branches, and immediately there was a roar and crackle. The northerners decided that it was the local god of thunder who was angry with them, and rushed to their heels. As you can see, bamboo can also have military applications. And even more direct than just described. If the bamboo stalk is cut across, the edges of such a cut will be very strong and sharp. Noticing this in ancient times, the inhabitants of Southeast Asia made weapons from wood grain: knives, spears, arrowheads. Having split the bamboo, you can bend the bow, and make an elastic bowstring from a thin strip of the bark of the same plant; young thin shoots will make excellent arrows. In the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean, more refined bamboo weapons are also known. Remember Arthur Conan Doyle's The Sign of the Four? The short native Tonga "quickly took out from the folds of his robe a pipe resembling a schoolboy's ruler and put it in his mouth." An arrow flew out of the tube and almost hit Dr. Watson... The author in this description was perfectly accurate. Tonga used a sumpitan, a bamboo pipe from which a poisoned bamboo arrow is blown out by breathing. Before the start of hostilities, arrows are stored in a quiver - it is also made of bamboo. The natives hit the target at a distance of 50 paces from the sumpitan. In Indochina, bamboo was used not only for attack, but also for the defense of villages from the enemy - be it a man or an animal. Cut bamboo stalks were stuck into the ground with their sharp ends up. They were invisible in the thick grass. The paths between the points were known only to the inhabitants of the village. The stranger inevitably stepped on bamboo knives sticking out of the ground - do not go where you were not invited! But enough talk about attack and defense. After all, bamboo is still a peaceful plant. It can be used to make rafts, houses, mattresses, ladders ... It is especially remarkable that bamboo does not need to be specially processed - cut down and build. About rafts and houses. On many southeastern islands, these concepts are almost inseparable. First, bamboo rafts are assembled on the water, then bamboo huts are erected on them. On the island of Sumatra, for example, entire such bamboo quarters sway on the waves. About mattresses. They look like bamboo pillows. The plates obtained from splitting a single stem-stem are placed on transverse supports - a bed with an elastic mattress is obtained. Simple and convenient. About stairs. This is an original invention of the inhabitants of the Malay Archipelago. We take two fairly thick bamboo trunks. Between them we make crossbars. This is the first part of the stairs. We take two trunks thinner. We make crossovers. This is the second part of the stairs. We take two even thinner trunks ... And so on. We attach the first part of the ladder to the tree we want to climb to collect, say, coconuts. The remaining parts are tied to the back. We rise. We insert the base of the second part of the stairs into the voids of the bamboo trunks of the first. We rise. We insert the base of the third part of the stairs into the hollows of the bamboo trunks of the second... And so - to the top, at least up to more than forty meters... Even the head began to spin. The locals make such ascents with astonishing speed. From such a height, the ocean surrounding the islands is clearly visible. Malay boats float on it, equipped with bamboo masts and sails made of thin bamboo plates. To make narrow ships more stable, the islanders reinforce special bamboo structures along the sides, such as recumbent whatnots; their ends are placed on the water and get a kind of floats. It doesn't get in the way of the boat. The Malays always take a vessel with fresh water into the boat - suddenly the voyage will last a long time. These bamboo buckets also have an unusual design. Holes are made in the middle of each transverse partition. Therefore, water does not splash when being carried or rocked by the sea and, when necessary, it is poured in a thin stream, like from a bottle. If, after returning from a voyage, the islanders wanted to write down their impressions, they did it on bamboo plates with pointed bamboo sticks. And the Chinese in ancient times invented a way to make real paper from bamboo. Has anything bamboo ever been invented on other continents? Are walking sticks and ski poles the only uses for bamboo available in Europe and America? This is not entirely true. The great American inventor Thomas Edison, creating an incandescent light bulb, was looking for a suitable material for a filament that could resist combustion for a long time when heated. After much experimentation, Edison decided that bamboo fibers would work best. But what type of this wonderful plant? There are a lot of them! The inventor sent his agents to areas where bamboo grows. They were looking for the right fibers in what is now Vietnam, in India, China, Ceylon, on the shores of the Amazon. More than 80 types of bamboo have been studied. Finally, the right kind was found. The light bulb worked. It happened in 1880. Bamboo is not used in modern electric light bulbs. Incandescent filaments are made from other materials, such as tungsten. But still bamboo is a wonderful plant! Author: Gol N.
Bamboo, Bambusa. Recipes for use in traditional medicine and cosmetology Ethnoscience:
Cosmetology:
Attention! Before use, consult with a specialist!
Bamboo, Bambusa. Tips for growing, harvesting and storing Bamboo is an ornamental plant that can be an excellent element of landscape design. There are many different types of bamboo, which can differ in size, shape and color of the leaves, as well as in the place of origin. Tips for growing, harvesting and storing bamboo: Cultivation:
Preparation and storage:
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