An Ancient Statue in an Aging Tree

This over a thousand-year-old Camphor tree in a Fujian village has a hole in the middle of its trunk, looking like a belly button in a human body.

From the belly buttonhole, you can see the face of an ancient statue.

Nobody knows since when the statue was there and how the statue got into it.

Traditionally in many parts of China, people would plant a Camphor tree when a baby girl was born in the family. By the time the girl grew up and was about to be married off, the tree would be cut down to make cabinets and makeup boxes as part of her dowry.

The furniture made with a Camphor tree has a refreshing scent and can keep insects away.

COMMENTS FROM MINDS.COM

soxfan1957
Very similar to cedar trees which were used to build Hope Chests.

The Hope’s chest was given to unmarried women so they could save linens and other household items in anticipation of marriage.

Though the traditions are different it is interesting that both cultures have some similarities. Fragrant wood, meant for girls and each had something to do with marriage.. One note. The tradition of Hope’s chest is derived from Dutch and Arabic cultures.

All Things Chinese
Maybe it is because the sense of smell has the deepest and longest impact on memory.

A Cave In a Tree

In an ancient village named New Garden within a historical township called Old Harbour in Human Province, southern inland China, there is a camphor tree that no one knows exactly how old it is.

In the tree, there is a big hollow; and in the hollow, you may see a group of villagers playing Mah-jong, not all the time, but frequently, especially during the sweaty summer season.

Villagers at the entrance of the tree cave

The locals have turned the tree and its hollow into their entertainment centre: adults set up wedding and funeral banquets under its canopy, and kids play hide-and-seek in its trunk.

About twenty years ago, a campfire inside the tree lighted by village kids tragically developed into a big blaze. The tree was burned through the night until the next day, but it has survived the ordeal and fully recovered, continuing to provide shelter and shade for the villagers until this very day.

Chinese botanists estimated the age of the tree could be around a thousand years or more, which means it has witnessed how a technically and culturally highly sophisticated Song Dynasty was destroyed by the nomadic Mongols, and how the Mongols were replaced by an economically and militarily highly developed Ming dynasty, and how the progress of Chinese renaissance was once again interrupted by the hunting tribe Manchus, and how the Manchus’ rule was brought to an end, along with the thousands-year-old classic monarchy system, by the Republic Revolution, and then the People’s Republic revolution, and then the Cultural Revolution, and then the economic reform, and then the 5G revolution…

What a grand witness to history.

Trees on a Wall

A big tree in Chongqing grows up on the concrete facade of a multistory residential block.

A row of groundless trees grows from a brick wall in Chongqing in China’s southern inland region along the Yangtze River.

COMMENTS FROM MINDS.COM

Eric
Nature is a force to be reckoned with. When humanity is no longer then Mother Nature will reclaim all.

All Things Chinese
Consciousness is the ultimate force to be reckoned with. When Nature, along with the entire universe, no longer exist, once again, consciousness will recreate it, and once again, with some minor alterations.

A Tree Over a Waterway

When a 500-year-old camphor tree in Jiangxi province falls under its own weight, it forms a bridge over a stream.

A Tree with a Creepy Hand

When this Sacred Fig in Yunnan province was planted, China was about to transit from a profit-chasing Shang Dynasty to a culture-pursue Zhou Dynasty, which was 3,000 years ago.

From this ancient tree, a branch looked uncannily like an aging human hand is found to have grown from the trunk with fingers poking into a crack on the cliff.

Gingko Trees

A Gingko Tree Planted by a Tang Dynasty Prince 1,400 Years Ago

This 1,400-year-old Gingko tree turns yellow in deep autumn in a Buddhist temple in ancient Chinese capital Xi’an.

It is documented as being planted by Prince Li Shimin of the Tang Dynasty. Later, Li Shimin became Emperor Taizong of Tang, one of the greatest emperors in Chinese history, along with Emperor Wudi of Han, Emperor Wendi of Sui, Emperor Taizu of Ming and Emperor Yongle of Ming.

Shaolin Temple in Autumn with Ginkgo Trees

A side door to Shaolin Temple

A Shaolin monk practicing kung fu on the ground covered with fallen ginkgo leaves.

COMMENTS FROM MINDS

rbli88
This is a good life. Meanwhile, in HK… they lost their minds over “Western Democracy.”

All Things Chinese
There are strengths and weaknesses in genuine Western-style democracy, but what those HK jerks are looking for in fact has nothing in common with the principles of democracy.

They burned alive an old man who argued with them, bricked a street cleaner to death, threw petrol bombs at police and randomly at pedestrians and assault any Chinese who does not speak the local Cantonese dialect. They turned the university campuses into patrol bomb factories, they took drugs and practised group sex, all in the name of “Western Democracy”.

They are just criminals and the hired criminals paid with big money by the local political parties in opposition for the sake of winning the coming election.

Autumn Ginkgo Trees Along a Promenade in Earth Alter Park in Beijing

Earth Alter located in the north of Beijing CBD was built in the early Ming Dynasty, echoing the Heaven Altar in the south.

A Gingko Village in Yunnan

A Chinese village in Tengchong, Yunnan Province, is covered by ginkgo trees.

The village was first built by the border troops and their families sent to Yunnan from Sichuan by the First Ming Dynasty emperor Hongwu in the later 14th century.

By then the military job was a lifetime occupation and could be passed on between generations, so the border soldiers normally moved to their post along with their entire families and the families were given a plot of land for free by the government to build houses, grow crops and open a family craft or trade business.

600 years ago, when the soldiers and their families resettled in Yunnan, they also brought with them the ginkgo trees popular in their native land Sichuan.

Ginkgo is a deciduous tree and the leaves turn yellow in autumn in October and begin to fall in November.

It is a truly ancient plant with a history that can be traced back to 250 million years ago when dinosaurs walked on the planet.

Its applications in Chinese medicine also have a long history and various prescriptions involving ginkgo fruits, leaves and barks can be found in the Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine (Compendium Of Materia Medica) compiled by Ming Dynasty medical researcher Li Shizhen. It mainly helps to cleanse lungs, relieve pain, soothe a cough and improve blood circulation.