<P> In the book Black Elk Speaks, Black Elk, an Oglala Lakota (Sioux) wičháša wakȟáŋ (medicine man and holy man), describes his vision in which after dancing around a dying tree that has never bloomed he is transported to the other world (spirit world) where he meets wise elders, 12 men and 12 women . The elders tell Black Elk that they will bring him to meet "Our Father, the two - legged chief" and bring him to the center of a hoop where he sees the tree in full leaf and bloom and the "chief" standing against the tree . Coming out of his trance he hopes to see that the earthly tree has bloomed, but it is dead . </P> <P> In Serer religion, the tree of life as a religious concept forms the basis of Serer cosmogony . Trees were the first things created on Earth by the supreme being Roog (or Koox among the Cangin). In the competing versions of the Serer creation myth, the Somb (Prosopis africana) and the Saas tree (acacia albida) are both viewed as trees of life . However, the prevailing view is that, the Somb was the first tree on Earth and the progenitor of plant life . The Somb was also used in the Serer tumuli and burial chambers, many of which had survived for more than a thousand years . Thus, Somb is not only the Tree of Life in Serer society, but the symbol of immortality . </P> <P> The World Tree or Tree of Life is a central symbol in Turkic mythology . It is a common motif in carpets . </P> <P> In 2009 it was introduced as the main design of the common Turkish lira sub-unit 5 kuruş . </P>

What is the tree of life a symbol of