Gonglang Village, Mangduo Community

　　 Located just over ten minutes from Weiyuan Town, the county seat of Jinggu, it is a Dai ethnic village shaded by phoenix tail bamboo. In front of the village primary school stand two 800-year-old banyan trees that tower like giant parasols, with dozens of children playing beneath them. Though it is early winter and there is no wind, cicadas can still be heard, and under the bright sun, the dappled shadows of the trees create a hazy atmosphere.

　　 Walking down the path, you’ll find ancient trees towering along the way. Under bodhi and mango trees are traces of rituals left by local residents who worshipped tree spirits to pray for blessings and ward off disasters. Several tree branches are arranged in circles around the trunks and bound with white threads to the banyan trees. Before the Dai people embraced Buddhism, nature worship was their main form of primitive religion. Although they later converted to Buddhism, remnants of their original beliefs remain. The Dai worship house spirits and village spirits. “Pī Měng” is the most important local deity, a shared guardian spirit of the entire region. The most significant ritual is the tree spirit worship. Near every village lies an ancient grove, with the largest tree in the grove regarded as the tree spirit. Each year in the second or fifth lunar month, villages hold worship ceremonies at designated times. This is also why Dai villages are often surrounded by clusters of large banyan, bodhi, mango, or other ancient trees providing ample shade.

　　 The Mangduo Buddha Relics are located on a slope surrounded by a small river, consisting of one footprint and two handprints. One of the two palm prints is 0.65 meters long and 0.53 meters wide, while the other is 0.84 meters long and 0.41 meters wide, deeply embedded in a huge rock, resembling the Buddha’s fear-not gesture. About two meters away on another large rock lies a footprint measuring 1.52 meters long and 0.75 meters wide. To protect these relics, a monastery is currently being built over them. According to local legend, this place was originally called Mengwo Dam, a prosperous salt-producing area. However, a vicious dragon in the river brought harm to the people. Seeing this, the Buddha left his hand and foot prints to subdue the dragon and restore the land and its riches to the people. Additionally, when the relics were unearthed, an ancient stone tablet inscribed in old Tai script was found nearby and is now kept at the Mangduo Monastery. The tablet is made of red sandstone. Due to its age, the surface has become faded, and after excavation, the inscriptions were retraced with ink to make the characters legible.