SUNGAI PETANI, KEDAH: Semilang residents were amazed at a sand mound found in a palm oil estate that looked like a Guanyin statue.

The news was rapidly spread and many curious residents went to take a look. Some even worshipped and built a bower to "shield" it.

A resident found the two-feet-high Guanyin sand mound at a palm oil estate which was near to Xuanling Temple.

The resident said that the mound looked like Guanyin on the lotus throne. He then informed the palm oil estate owner Chen Yuhong, 72.

Chen told Sin Chew Daily that he knew about the mound before Chinese New Year. It looked like a calabash at that time and he thought it was a termite wound.

He also said that he would usually destroy it when he saw one as he was worried that termites might infest his palm oil trees. However, he just left the mound there and he never thought it would become a mound that looked like Guanyin.

He believed that the Guanyin mound was formed because of the rain and wind over the past few weeks.

When being asked to comment on the residents' actions, he said that he would not stop them from worshipping it or making a bower to protect it. However, he did not encourage them to do so as he wanted to treat it as usual. (Translated by YOU HSUEH LIN/ Sin Chew Daily)