HONG KONG: Faith, it’s been well said, moves mountains. But in central China, nervous Communist Party officials are planning to blast an entire hill face after an unusual rock formation shaped, some say, like a god-like figure began drawing thousands of superstitious and worshipful villagers.
The latest sensational ‘divine sighting’ in nominally atheist China, and the upsurge in piety it has given rise to, has so unnerved Party officials that they have directed the local government to blast the rock that bears an image that, villagers claim, resembles a “Bodhisattva”, a compassionate and enlightened being in the Buddhist belief system.
The incident, in Wanzhou district in Chongqing provincial-level municipality, shows up the clash of values between Chinese villagers moored in centuries-old superstitions, and party leaders who want to shepherd China into becoming a modern, scientific superpower, free of irrational beliefs.
It all began earlier this month, Chinese media reports say, when Lao Cheng, a manager on a local construction project, claimed he saw flashes of light coming from a rock formation shaped like a human figurine on the face of Wei’an hill. Since then, thousands of people from nearby villages have been flocking every day to worship the “Bodhisattva” by setting off firecrackers in propitiation and making offerings of cash.
A reporter for the Chongqing Evening News noted that worshippers pointed to furrows and grooves in the rock formation and indicated that they symbolised the Bodhisattva’s arms and fingers. “People draped red sashes to the idol, lit incense, knelt on the ground and chanted and prayed to the ‘Bodhisattva’ to protect their families.”
Local government officials have put up a poster at the site saying that the image was a ‘natural formation’ and urging villagers not to believe rumours and superstitions. Media reports quoted local officials as saying that geological experts had verified the image and confirmed that it was an eroded stone – and an entirely natural phenomenon. District government officials had held an emergency meeting last week and decided to “discourage” superstitious activity.
Even the flashing lights that Lao saw can be easily explained, say government officials. The “secular, scientific” explanation is that the sandstone rock contained reflective minerals such as quartz and mica, which might have reflected the light in a certain way.
Round-the-clock police security has been posted at the site to deter potential worshippers, but by last week, an estimated 10,000 villagers had turned up there.
Exasperated government officials are believed to be considering more drastic measures to prevent a religious cult from gathering momentum. The Beijing News daily reports that the district government had been advised to blast the rock face. If that happens, a stick of dynamite could well end this brief blast of superstition in China.
(Original headline: Blast of superstition unnerves Chinese officials )
