A Frequently Asked Question
Q. Why are onion, garlic and related "pungent" plants excluded from this cuisine?
A. Because of the cuisine's Buddhist roots.
The monks that developed this cuisine followed scriptures that warn against those plants.
The Shurangama Sutra
The Shurangama Sutra, Volume 7, Part One, discusses the process of overcoming the basic cause of random thoughts that fill the mind
and eliminate attentiveness:1
...Beings who seek samadhi should refrain from eating five pungent plants of this world....
If these five are eaten cooked, they increase one's sexual desire; if they are eaten raw, they increase one's anger.
[Note: The scriptures do not warn against all pungent plants, only those in the malodorous garlic/onion Allium genus. There is no advice against ginger, for example.]
If this simple, straightforward rationale fails to sway the samadhi-seeker the Sutra, like many other religious texts, makes its
point with no lack of imagery:
Therefore, even if people in this world who eat pungent plants can expound the twelve divisions of the Sutra canon, the gods and immortals
of the ten directions will stay far away from them because they smell so bad. However, after they eat these things the hungry ghosts will
hover around and kiss their lips. Being always in the presence of ghosts, their blessings and virtue will dissolve as the days go by, and
they will experience no lasting benefit...
People who eat pungent plants and also cultivate samadhi will not be protected by the Bodhisattvas, gods, immortals, or good spirits of
the ten directions; therefore, the tremendously powerful demon kings, able to do as they please, will appear in the body of a Buddha and
speak Dharma for them, denouncing the precepts and praising lust, rage, and delusion.
When their lives end, these people will join the retinue of demon kings. When they use up their blessings as demons, they will fall into
the unintermittent hell.
Ananda, those who cultivate for Bodhi should never eat the five pungent plants.
In short, the scriptures warn that those malodorous pungent plants are to be avoided because obstacles to the spiritual path increase when they are eaten.
Finally, it should be noted that the authenticity of the Shurangama Sutra is currently a subject of academic debate. Some scholars assert that the work was not brought from India, but fabricated in China.2
Similar views of the pungent plants
Jainism
Note that although there are some strong similarities to the Jain vegetarian diet, the Sutra's rationale is different from the advice against eating any root vegetable, given in Jain religious books. The Jain advice is based on the principle of minimizing violence to living beings: root vegetables are classified as possessing multiple plant souls.
Traditional Chinese medicine
The Sutra's assessment of the pungent plants has parallels in traditional Chinese medicine. According to the book Chinese System of Food Cures:3
- Pungent foods induce perspiration and promote energy circulation.
- Chive seed is an important herb in Chinese herbal remedies, normally used as a "yang" tonic: a tonic used to treat impotence and sexual weakness, among other things, by increasing the energetic capacity of the testes.
- Garlic helps to eliminate the strong smells of meat or fish.
Yogic theory
Yoga master Sri Swami Sivananda, while advising spiritual aspirants to maintain a yogic diet, claimed:4
Rajasic food distracts the mind. It excites passion...Onions and garlic are worse than meat.
Islam
References in Islamic texts regarding the disturbing effects of strong-smelling pungents can easily be found online, for example:
It is reported that [once, when] the Prophet (pbuh) sensed the odor of garlic in the mosque, he said: Whoever eats of this tree,
he should not come near us in our mosques – distressing us with the odor of garlic – till its odor subsides; for the angels too are
distressed by things that distress humans.5
It is narrated that Omar ibn Al-Khattab addressed people on a Friday and in that address he mentioned the Prophet of God. In his
address, he said: People, you continue to eat [from the fruits of] two trees, which I see as vicious [in their stench]. It is this
onion and garlic. Indeed, I saw the Prophet (pbuh), when their odor was sensed from a person, he directed him to exit to the Baqee`.
Therefore, whoever eats of these should kill their stench by cooking them.6
These narratives are interpreted as directives regarding social etiquette: i.e., consider your neighbor before plunking down next to
him in prayer while reeking of garlic.
Folklore
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Garlic is widely used as an aphrodisiac.7
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Popular folklore around the world is that garlic's powerful smell provides protection against evil, sorcery, or vampires. But for that purpose it is usually to be hung up or worn - not eaten (Ulysses' defense against Circes in Homer's Odyssey might seem like an exception, but the popular belief that the plant that saved him was garlic is a misconception).
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In Christian folklore, the smelly pungent plants are associated with not just evil, but with its chief evil demon: the Devil. And the association is both indirect and direct.
The direct association is via a legend (sometimes said to be early Christian, sometimes Islamic) that tells that when the Devil was cast from Eden, garlic sprang up wherever his left foot stepped and onion where his right foot touched.
The indirect association is actually much more widely known, though the connection may not be apparent. The characteristic odor of garlic, onion, and other Allium plants comes from a sulfur chemical they produce. Christian folklore has long associated sulfur (formerly known as "brimstone") with the Devil and his abode in Hell. In 2006, that association made international news when Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez told the United Nations General Assembly that the US President George W. Bush was "the Devil himself" and "yesterday the Devil came right here, and it smells of sulfur still today!".
So, the take-away here is: after a tasty dish of allium-free vegetarian cuisine, you will not be disturbed by lust, anger, kisses from hungry ghosts, demon kings, unintermittent hell, Sudden Mosque Bum-rush Syndrome, or the stench of presidential footsteps in your mouth.
慢慢吃！ Bon appetit!
Further reading
Obviously, more online resources are available now than when this was firsted posted (pre-Wikipedia era!).
While updating this, I came across Why Ayurveda, Yogic & FODMAP Diet Recommends No Onion No Garlic? - that covers more ground and in greater depth than that presented here, and with lots of links to even more information.
- Pages 33-41, "The Shurangama Sutra - Volume Seven", Published and translated by Buddhist Text Translation Society ↩
- "The Shurangama-Sutra (T. 945): A reappraisal of its authenticity", Ronald Epstein, 1976 ↩
- "Chinese System of Food Cures: Preventions and Remedies", Henry C. Lu, Sterling Publishing Co., 1986 ↩
- "Kundalini Yoga", Sri Swami Sivananda ↩
- "The Prophet’s (pbuh) Special Position With Reference to Eating Garlic, Etc…" ↩
- "Narrative regarding Eating Garlic, Onion and Leek in Cooked Form" ↩
- "Allium sativum: facts and myths regarding human health", Majewski M., 2014 ↩