Learning life lessons from an ancient Iranian symbol
or how going back to your roots can light the way to the person you aspire to be.
Growing up in Iran, I was always surrounded by different objects with a distinct drop-shaped design; from table covers and carpets to vases and other decorative things, even tiles in historical palaces and houses. “Botté” or as I later learned, “Paisley” in English, is an inseparable part of every native Iranian art, as well as all our lives.
But before getting into what can be learnt from this old design, and to better understand what it represents, I think it’s best if we take a short look at Paisley’s history. The roots of paisley can be traced back to the 1st Iranian (Persian) empire 2500 years ago. This weirdly shaped drop is, in fact, a graphic representation of a cypress tree.
Cypress is considered to be a sacred tree among the followers of the prophet/philosopher Zoroaster (or Zarathustra — you didn’t think that’s Nietzsche’s creation, did you? 😂🙈).
It is believed that Zoroaster himself brought the tree from Heaven, and was the 1st person to plant it on Earth.
By the year 550 B.C. (the establishment of the first Persian empire), the ideas of Zoroaster had already turned into an established religion, and the Majority of Iranic people, specifically the Medes and the Persians, followed it as their religion although the empire practised freedom of religion to all of its subjects. It is in this period that we see the cypress tree appearing in stone carvings and monuments, the most notable of which is in Persepolis (or as it’s called in Persian, Takht-e-Jamshid)
However, it is worth noting that although this tree had religious connotations, we don’t see it being used in sacred temples and places of worship, but instead, representations of it were used in palace walls, royal fabrics and clothing, and plates. Bearing this in mind, one can theorise that at some point, the tree became more of a national symbol.
In later periods, and especially during the Sassanid dynasty (which is the last Iranian dynasty before Arab Invasion/Conquest), we see the continuation of the use of Cypress in the above-mentioned fashion.
As shown in the Sassanid silk fabric below, we can notice the familiar cypress shaped element on the wings of the mythical bird, Simorgh.
After the Arab Invasion of Iran in 651 A.D. (or IranShahr, as it was known back then, meaning the Kingdom of Aryans — no, not the WW2 type of Aryans), we notice a change both in the shape, and the usage of this graphic element. The head of the tree is tilted to the side and drops down, gaining the iconic look that we know today. If we consider the tree a national symbol, this change can be interpreted as the sorrow of Iranians as their country had been occupied by foreign invaders. Also, we see the paisley appearing on religious places, but interestingly enough, on the newly built mosques, and not on Zoroastrian temples. In my opinion, we can regard this as a symbolic, and rather passive-aggressive (😂) way of commemorating the past, without having your head chopped off.
Fast forward to after the series of Mongolian invasions, and consequently, the formation of the Ilkhanate in Iran and the Moghal (Gurkani) dynasty in India. The Moghal rulers were highly Persianised and the Persian language was regarded as the language of nobility and royalty, thus it is not hard to believe that paisley travelled to India in this period, while continuing its life, and flourishing in the country of origin as well.
Although the Occident knew of this design through trade and used it in clothing, it is after the colonisation of India by the British that the west comes to fully embrace the paisley, and the rest is history. In the 1960s and 1970s, we saw the huge popularity of the design due to the hippy movement and what it stood for, and one could argue that this popularity still stands to this date.
So what? What does this all mean?
Well, it can mean a lot!
To begin with, cypress is a rather resilient and strong tree that might bend during storms but rarely breaks. It also is an evergreen that lives long but bears no fruit, thus has no “earthly” attachment. Lastly, as it grows normally the top or a part of the top, bends down.
Now, let’s think about what are optimal personality traits that are valued among us human beings. Endurance, or bending but not breaking, can be one. Survival, or being evergreen, and focusing on self and not on the material can also be other traits that come to mind. Moreover, I don’t think anyone likes to hang around a show-off for an extended period, throughout our civilization, we have been advised to remain humble, down-to-earth, and approachable regardless of how much we may or may not have gained. Or to put it more clearly, and as the Persian proverb goes:
The more fruitful the tree, the lower it hangs.
Now, have I, the writer of this rather lengthy article, achieved all those traits? Of course not! But one can strive to get closer to these characteristics by each passing day, regardless of one’s background, social class or race.
The human being is a species of code and symbols. The amount of wisdom that our ancestors have transferred to us through their symbolic language is frankly mind-blowing. The only thing that is required of us is to dust them off and uncover them so that we don’t test what has already been tested and can move faster towards self-realisation, self-development, and personal growth.
So, the next time you wear clothes bearing the paisley design, keep its story and what it stands for in mind.
