Beside the Stone God of Pat-li Rural-town (#S52), an altar is set under a tree. I thought the altar was for the worship of the Tree God, but they said the tree was the tree Land God (#T35; see figure 102) and not the Tree God.

A signboard is set by Taipei County government under a big banyan tree (#T36; see figure 103) beside a small hamlet in Pak- li Rural-town and states that the tree is hundreds of years old and should be preserved as a Pah-lin-lau-chhiu (tree of hundreds age or the Elderly Tree). However, the villagers traditionally sacrifice to it and worship it as a deity. When asked who the deity is, some villagers replied that it was the Land God, some replied that it is the tree Land God, some replied that it is the tree for the shrine of the Land God under the tree, while some replied that it is just a tree deity.

The Tree God of Tho-a Kha Hamlet in Lam-huin Ward (#T37) was originally a tree for the shrine of the Land God of Lam-huin Ward. I was told that about 100 years ago a tiny shrine was built under the tree for the worship of the Land God. But when the shrine collapsed about 20 years ago, the local inhabitants built a temple for the Land God on a spacious place nearby and left the tree alone. About five years ago, a religious specialist told them that the tree had been possessed by an immortal (shenxian), therefore they started to worship it as the Tree God.

The tree (#T29; see figure 95) representing the General Chu of Peh-hun-a is protected and worshipped at the outside of the courtyard of a goddess temple. When I first encountered it, I guessed that it was the tree Land God or the Tree God. But people there reported to me that it is the General Chu (Chu-hu Chiang- kun), the guardian of the patron deity in the goddess temple. "The location of the tree is so close to the goddess temple" I was told, "just as General Chu closely guards the goddess."

The Tree God of Khe-te (#T21; see figure 87) was originally the tree for the temple of the Land God of Khe-te hamlet. Since 15 years ago, when the tree grew extraordinarily big and when the lottery gambling "Dajiale (Everybody Happy)" became prevalent, the tree began to be deified as a patron deity of gambling.

Moreover, we find that the Pine King of Chong-ui Rural-town (#T2; see figure 67) is located in front of the big temple of Khai-chiang-seng-ong (literally, the First Divine Patriarch of the Chiang-chiu Prefecture). The Tree God and Goddess of Kui-sin Village (#T7; see figure 72) were originally located in front of the village temple of Kui-sin Village. Even though the trees died some decades ago, statues were carved for the worship of these two divine trees in the village temple. The Tree God of So.-o Urban-town (#T10; see figure 75) is located behind a martyr shrine named "Chi?pai Kong (literally, the Stone Tablet God)". The Tree God of Chhau-lia Lane (#T25; see figure 91) is located beside a small temple of Tai-chiong-ia (the enshrined posthumous bones, a kind of responsive deity). The Tree God of Ho-peng Ward (#T26; see figure 92) is located in front of a big Mass Grave Temple also. The Banyan God of Sion-lim Ward (#T18; see figure 83) is on the back of the Stone God of Sion-lim Ward (#S33; see figure 35). Because of the location, they are all luckily preserved and grown into divine trees.

IV. Stones and Trees Representing Deities:

There are still some stones and trees that became sacred not because of miracles, unusual appearance, special location or unusual origin, but simply because they were chosen by people at random. For example, in the beginning of the Pak-gi Highway (the main road leading from Gi-lan County to Taipei), a stone (#S7; see figure 7) of about 100 cm wide, 40 cm high and 50 cm long is enshrined in a low, shed-like shrine made of metal sheet. Mr. ?n Tiong-siu, an elder, told me that the stone has been worshipped since at least when his mother was young. Therefore the temple is more than 80 years old. He said that when his mother became old and weak, they went to the Te-kun Temple not far from the area. Through divination of a shaman of the Te-kun Temple, the God Te- kun ordered them to build a temple for the Stone God. Therefore the family initiated the small temple of the God and his mother became healthy again. I asked him why the stone was originally deified, he answered: "It is simple. Because when the pioneers, the ancestors of the villagers, came to the area, they chose a stone and 'entitled' ('ho.') it "the Stone God", and it has been deified since."

In Bah-tau Hamlet of Siang-tan Ward, a stone (#S22; see figure 23) is worshipped at the right-hand side of the Land God temple. There is nothing special about the stone's appearance. Local people told me that they just chose the stone at random to "represent" the Good Brothers to be the object to sacrifice to them.

The gentleman who presently takes care of the Land God Temple of E-tiau-chun of Sin-hong Ward told me that he knew the origin of the two stones representing the Land God. He said that about 60 years ago, his father and senior relatives considered that it was no good not to have a temple for the Land God in the hamlet. They decided to go to a dry river bed to choose some flat stones to build a dolmen and a stone of the size that could be set in the dolmen to be the statue of the Land God. When the present temple was built, the dolmen was thrown away and an elaborate statue, the present patron deity statue, was set at the centre of the altar table, and the original stone Land God was moved aside to become an associate statue. Later on, the second stone which looks like the first one, was chosen and put at the right side of the patron statue as a couple. Therefore there are two stones, one on the right side of the patron deity statue and one on the left side, in the temple to represent the Land God (#S29; see figure 31) of the hamlet.

In the Japanese Period, two gamblers who were escaping from Japanese policemen ran into the Stone God temple and made a wish that if the Stone God could bless them to escape from the policemen, they would worship him forever. After they succeeded in escaping the policemen, they forgot the wish to the Stone God. But when they were back to their home village safely, one of the gamblers dreamed that he had come back to the mother temple of ?n-lim Town to worship. As a result, they quit gambling and chose a stone (#S37; see figure 39) and rested the amulet they got from the temple of ?n-lim Town on it to worship. It is the initiation of the present temple and the stone they chose is now worshipped in the temple for the Stone God Hi-ti Rural-town.

Beside Hok-siong Kiong (literally, Palace for the Land God and the banyan god), a small Land God Temple, a tree is venerated as the Tree God (#T9; see figure 74). The tree is the youngest deified tree I have ever seen. I was very curious why they worshipped the young tree. The neighbours told me that originally pioneers came to this area with a statue of the Land God from mainland China more than 150 years ago. They put the statue under a big tree and worshipped. The tree grew into the Tree God afterwards and nominally adopted many children. When the original deified tree died, neighbours chose a tree and planted it to replace the original tree and continued to worship the young tree as the Tree God and to venerate as a nominal parent of unhealthy children. That is why they, unlike other areas, worship a young tree.

The cases do not happen only in Taiwan alone. In Jinhua of Zhejiang Provence, Eberhard (1970:21), for example, came across a holy tree, in front of which there were still some incense sticks and the remains of numerous prayer notes addressed to the "mother camphor tree." The people told him they chose the tree as the mother of children, so that the children might grow as strong as the tree.

Again, in some places of Taiwan, people chose an upright cylindrical stone to represent their Land God. For example, in San-tiau Hill, an upright stone pillar is worshipped in a stone chamber as the Land God (#S23; see figure 25) of the hamlet. However, we are not able to see the stone pillar, since it is hidden by the stone chamber that collapsed many years ago. Beside the stone chamber, a stone is chosen as an object for the worship of the Good Brothers. I was told that villagers will also sacrifice to the stone representing the Good Brothers (#S24; see figure 26) after they worship the stone Land God.

In E-kham-te Hamlet of Pak-si Ward, there is a stone pillar worshipped as the Land God (#S25; see figure 27) in a stone chamber. The stone inside the chamber set vertically beneath the centre of the dolmen is made of a stone pillar of about one chi (i.e. about 30 cm) in length and one chi in width. The upper half of it is pointed and bell-shaped and the lower half is buried into the ground. Beside the stone chamber, a similar stone (#S26; see figure 28) is venerated also in another stone chamber. I was told that the two stone chambers were built by Mr. Ui Chhun- phang, the former landlord of the area. About seventy years ago, Mr. Ui Chhun-phang's rice fields in the area got sick. He considered that the malady was caused by Mr. Ang whose corpse was buried under the field and left unworshipped. Therefore Mr. ? Chhun-phang set an upright cylindrical stone (#S26; see figure 28) and built the tiny stone-made chamber to worship him in every seventh lunar month. He, in the meantime, built the stone-made chamber beside it under an Autumn Maple tree. Unfortunately, nobody knew why he chose the upright cylindrical stones.(note.9)