Udumbara, a legendary flower that is believed to blossom once every three millennia to symbolize the arrival of the Noble King of Falun (Law Wheel), was seen in Fremont, California on Aug. 8. This is the first such finding in North America. The world's first report of Udumbara was in 1997 in Korea.
The extremely rare flowers were seen on the leaves of an oleander tree on the side of Warm Springs Blvd in Fremont, about 150 feet south of the Starlite Way crossing.
The tiny, delicate flowers are white in color and grow suspended on threadlike stalks. The stems are slimmer than human hair. Altogether Udumbara appeared on eight leaves. Some leaves had 30 little buds on them, some had 40, 50, or 60 buds.
Lisa Wei and her five-year-old daughter Tianhui Yang were on their way to the Minghui School at around 8 am when they first saw the precious flowers.
"I immediately recognized that they are Udumbara because I saw the Udumbara news on the Internet before," said Tianhui, who was very excited to be the first eyewitness. Her Mom Lisa has shown Udumbara news reports and pictures from other countries to her before. Lisa was excited too. She could not believe she would see an auspicious Udumbara so close to home.
Previously, witnesses of Udumbara were reported in Australia, Korea, mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan. The Udumbara sprouted from Buddha Statues, bricks, glasses, iron tubes, and plant leaves. There is not a known match of this species of plant life to date.
According to "Etymology in Huilin's YinYi," a Buddhist scripture from China's Tang Dynasty in the early 9th century, "Udumbara appears in Heaven. It does not belong to the human world. Only the mighty virtue of a reincarnating Tathagata or the appearance of the Noble King of Falun would cause Udumbara to appear in the human world."
Quite a few people gathered around to see the Udumbara in the morning. Some stopped their cars to join the crowd, an unusual occurrence in this relatively quiet neighborhood. Many took pictures and also called their families, friends, or close relatives to come to see the rare flowers.
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