China’s Miao people believe human life symbolised by trees, depicting birth, hardship, death

China’s Miao ethnic group reveres trees, believing that they symbolise the life of humans; they also worship vegetation at important stages of life.The Miao people, whose population numbers over 10 million, inhabit central and southern China’s Guizhou, Yunnan, Guangxi provinces, and have a traditional Flower-Jump Festival every year.At this time, people gather around a 10-metre-tall flower tree made by the revered elderly in the village with evergreen tree branches, and dance around it on every sixth day of the first lunar month.Trees play a central role in the lives of China’s Miao people. Photo: ZhihuThe Miao people believe that the maple tree is the origin of their life. They believe that such a tree bred the butterfly mother, who gave birth to 12 life eggs, and a human was born in one of the eggs.When they build new villages, they would first plant a maple tree. If the tree does not like the place, they would seek another spot.In some villages, people celebrate the life of their mother tree once a year.They worship sacrifices and burn joss paper, asking for another year’s protection from the tree, before snapping some branches to take home.People from the Miao ethnic minority perform a traditional ritual as villagers look on. Photo: ZhihuEach home would worship the branches, hanging 12 little glutinous rice cakes on them, to symbolise that all the 12 months in the following year would be smooth.In a 2,000-people Miao village called Biasha, which in the local language means “verdant lands”, people believe that a person’s life has three trees.The first tree represents birth, which is planted when a person is born, and made into their coffin when they die.The second tree is for a person to worship for health and peace when they encounter illness or difficulties in life, designated by the village’s revered elderly.Members of the Miao community place joss sticks under a tree. Photo: ZhihuThe third tree is an evergreen tree planted by a person’s family on their grave after they die, suggesting that they never really leave the world.Further ReadingA Biasha villager reportedly said that they do not allow the use of carts to carry the chopped branches, and only carry them on their own backs, to prevent unlawful felling.People who secretly fell trees or saplings are penalised by the villagers and asked to plant twice the number of trees that they cut.In some Miao villages, when people, especially children, get sick, their family would “plant” a small flower tree at home, to pray to the deities and their ancestors to restore the patients’ spirits and health.The flower tree is like an altar, featuring branches arranged among four staircases, each representing a generation of the family.This “Memorial Pavilion” honours the 1,000-year-old camphor tree donated by Biasha residents for the construction of the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall in Beijing in 1976. To show their respect, locals kept one piece to commemorate here. Photo: ZhihuThey would also sacrifice pig’s bone to the tree for boys, and duck’s feather for girls.People also decorate the tree with a bag of rice they asked for from other village households, a silver bracelet funded by 12 male relatives, and a bundle of white threads that symbolises longevity.Although the Miao people’s tree-worshipping rituals are not shared across the nation, Chinese people generally revere giant trees hundreds of years old, believing they are sacred.In recent years, the practice of literally embracing trees went viral among urban youngsters in China, who believe it will relieve their intense life pressure.