In the forest, four special animals were all close friends: a partridge, a hare, a monkey, and an elephant. They lived beneath a large banyan tree. Out of curiosity, they wanted to figure out who was the eldest among them. So, to figure out who was the most senior, they started talking about the age of the oldest banyan tree where they lived.
The elephant remarked, “When I first saw this tree, it was as big as my body.” “When I arrived, the tree was as big as my body,” the monkey remarked. The hare remarked, “I licked the dew from this tree’s leaves when it was still just a sprout when I first saw it.” The partridge claimed, “I carried a seed here, fertilized it, and planted this tree.”
Thus, their approximate ages were determined using this tree. The youngest animals sat below the older ones out of respect for the elders, with the oldest at the top.
The Four Harmonious Friends; a Buddhist Tale of Honoring Age