The Story Of Love Tree Family (爱情树)

 

Picture 1

 

The cengal tree on left is the mother, the right is a banyan tree which is the father with the center tree as their child.

 

Picture 2

 

There are always two bird nests at any single time. Believe it or not?

 

 

I was visiting an agarwood plantation in Gopeng and my guide brought me to a pair of entangled trees. On one side, it is a rare Cengal Emas (Neobalanocarpus Heimii) and on the other a Banyan tree. Both trees seem to be hugging each other with another Cengal Emas growing erect between the two.

 

According to my tour guide, the Cengal Emas was the emanation of a British lad, the Banyan tree an aboriginal lady while the central piece is their offspring. Story has it that the plantation management wanted to cut down the trees in the beginning of agarwood planting phase but whatever they tried, the machineries would fail at the very beginning… First, the bulldozers won’t start and the chainsaw failed on touching the tree trunk.

 

Finally an aborigine elder came to them and told them this story:

 

About a decade ago, a young and handsome British lad fell in love with an aborigine girl and they wanted to get married. However, their sweet dream was opposed by the youth’s parents and they lodge a complaint to the British authority at that time.

 

The British acted according and sent in trooper to arrest the aborigine girl. The couple was very scared on learning of the arrival of the army and didn’t know what to do. Finally they came to the current location and made a prayer to the mountain god.

 

After some prayer, the mountain god manifested in front of the couple and told them that if they truly love each other and that they wanted to stay with each other until the end of the world; then the mountain god can turn them into a pair of boulders or trees of their choice. After some pondering, the couple decided to become trees and the mountain god thus turned the lady and lad into two huge trees which stayed put until these days.

 

I am in no position to say if the above story is true, but the guide told me that birds normally build nests in pairs as shown in picture 2. If you have the time, why not come to Gopeng to see the lover trees with your own eyes and make a wish too!