In the Pali canonical texts, there exist 26 examples (2 in the Jataka and 24 in the Apadana ) that mention worship of the Bodhi tree. In the worship of the Bodhi tree, the renunciants did not do anything by themselves. Rather, while responding to the requests of lay followers, they suggested the worship of the Bodhi tree and played the role of advisor or observer. They taught lay followers the meaning of Bodhi tree worship, and explained to them its significance. It developed in a gradual process as below: Very shortly after the mahaparinibbana of the Buddha, the Bodhi tree was seen ‘the place of reminiscences of the Buddha’. With the passage of time, when the Jataka and the Apadana were written, the Bodhi tree was perceived as ‘the Buddha himself’. As time went on further, when the commentaries were written, the Bodhi tree was accepted as the wisdom of the four-fold path or ‘the enlightenment of the Buddha’. In this paper, I refer to some of the literary evidence and discuss how the concept of worship of the Bodhi tree changed with the passage of time, particularly for renunciants.