Bonsai is an ancient art form that originated in China and Japan and is primarily focused on producing beautiful miniaturized trees and plants. Bonsai is in fact a Japanese version of the original Chinese word ‘pun-sai’ that was applied to this oriental art form. The history of bonsai goes back countless ages, with the first evidence of small potted trees showing up in Egyptian tombs over 2000 years ago. Records show Indian herbalists keeping prized plants dwarfed in containers to increase their mobility 1500 years back. The word ‘bonsai’ is made up of two root words, ‘bon’ meaning tray and ‘sai’ which means plant. Thus, a literal translation is ‘plant in a tray’ which gives a ‘flavour’ of the art of bonsai. Perhaps the most important thing to understand about bonsai is that it is all about aesthetics, the beauty of the tree or plant. A small tree or plant is not accepted as bonsai until it has been carefully pruned and trained into the desired shape.