An art feature in Taiwan - Chiayi stone monkey.

Hello everyone, today I like to introduce an art feature in Taiwan - Chiayi stone monkey. There have been 60 years of history for the artists to create art works with stone monkeys. Chiayi has a complex relation with monkey & stone monkey. There used to be(The head of the Monkey Stone fell down in the 921 Earthquake 1999, so it became 3 or 4 meters shorter. Thus, the whole landmark changed a lot. It is hard to imagine how it was like before) a pile of giant stones which called “Monkey Stone” in Alishan(A mountain located in t Chiayi) Forest. These giant stones looked very much like a monkey sitting there staring into the far distance, so people named the place “Monkey Stone”. There use to be a lot of monkeys in Mount Ali(Alisha). Monkey stone is sculptured with various shellfish fossils from Pachong River(A river in Taiwan,it flows through Tainan County and Chiayi County for 81 km.). All factors have the relation with Chiayi.

As previously said, stone monkey is sculptured with various shellfish fossils from Pachong Rive. Art creators use all kinds of shellfish fossils originating from Pachong River, making impossible into miracle, who turn the plain original stones and fossils into unique arts. Through their dexterous hands, these artists sculptured the spirits, witty & elastic natures of the monkeys on their works. One thing worth mentioning is most stone monkeys creators never accept academic training, but all of the stone sculptures are look alive.

The reason I like to introduce this art feature is that I live in Chiayi now, and one of main roads that I will passing very day, has a stone monkey sculpture on it. I am curious about the origin of it, so I search it on the internet and find these stories. I hope you will like this introduction. :)