Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Turcology research (Online), sa.82, ss.134-148, 2025 (Hakemli Dergi)
One of the views accepted in nature cults in Turkish society from the early periods until today is the idea of attributing holiness to trees or certain tree species. The belief in the Tree of Life, perhaps the most important of these as in all world cultures. The Tree of Life, which gained a formal character with the belief of two worlds in the old Turkish belief system, was evaluated as a totemic cultural form and was also identified with nature or supernatural beings. While making its name known with various events such as the tree of life and used in later periods with its iconographic meaning rather than decoration, the Vaqvak Tree is known as a tree that grows on the Vaqvak Island in the Indian Ocean and gives its name to the island where it is located. This legendary tree with the tips of its branches or fruits in the form of humans or animals and making a sound like a quack can be considered as the most important iconography that exemplifies the plant-human metaphor. Within the scope of the study, the connections of the concept of sacred tree with the cultural tradition in Turks, the origin of the Tree of Life, which contains various meanings, and the Foundation Tree, which contains a different cultural texture, and the areas where they are used were investigated. It was tried to compare the plant-human, animal metaphor and the symbolism of two trees by scanning the literature on the subject. In the article, it is aimed to focus on the meaning of the Tree of Life and the Tree of Quarantine, how they are used, and their similar and different aspects, if any.