This week, apparently, we are mainly protecting the environment. Facetiously, I suggest Kung Fu Monks:
...the Daoists undertook a survey of their major sacred mountains. What this study showed was that because of the inherent sacredness of places such as Hua Shan, Tai Shan, Emei Shan or Qingqing Shan, these had survived in a better ecological state than comparable areas which were not considered sacred by the general population. This had proved to be effective, even during the worse excesses of the Cultural Revolution. Temples and shrines, statues and sacred books had been destroyed, but the mountains had still survived in a better environmental state than other areas.
Well, the Cult Revolters were seeking out actual religious artifacts to destroy. They weren’t going to despoil a whole mountain – things to do, people to chuck out of windows, etc. It’s different now of course, when your average Chinese mountain is viewed as a combination minerals resource and landfill site. Except, apparently, when people think it’s effectively haunted. It also helps to have mystical forest rangers about the place:
most park wardens clock in at 8am and go home around 5pm. The illegal loggers and poachers tend to come when the wardens are not around. On a sacred mountain, it is quite likely that a Daoist monk will be running up the mountainside at 3am or meditating in the middle of the forest at midnight.
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