'Sacred' rocks forge community spirit
( 2003-08-26 16:38) (China Daily)
A number of boulders on the
hills near a farm in Qiongzhong in Hainan Province were deified by a local
communist Party secretary who wanted "to get along with local people", a report
in Hainan Daily reveals.
The large red characters, such as "Anti-evil Tower", "God's Bed", and
"Immortal Seal", were carved and painted on the rocks in 1998 soon after Liu
Guilu came into office.
Afterwards he said he had a dream in which God instructed him to do so,
villagers said.
Liu encouraged the people to worship the stones.
The God's Bed was said to be able to cure any illness if a person were to lie
down on it.
Liu felt that deifying the rocks could help bring the local people together
and enhance farm production.
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