28 May 2023
Bayan trees are one of my favourite trees. I always felt banyan trees command a special kind of aura with their tall trunks and long hanging roots. I am not sure how to describe this, but it kind of feels like they have a certain presence and soul, yet they also feel slightly creepy. A friend gave me a tip-off for a hut built under and covered by banyan tree roots, so I decided to give a visit.
Searching for Tree Shrine
1215 | A walk through T15 |
1300 | Spot the tree shrine |
1315 | Walk out along the pipeline trail |
1215 | A walk through T15
We started our hike from Chestnut Park to T15 then into some back trails, climbing over a number of fallen tree logs. Tree logs always made for a fun obstacle course in the forest. We passed a big stone slab and piles of bricks as we went deeper into the forest. We were looking for a tree in a forest of trees which made it harder to spot.
1300 | Spot the tree shrine
After circling the area for a bit, I spotted a huge tree with long roots, and walking around it we saw that it grew around a hut. It was alot bigger and more majestic that I had imagined, with its long hanging roots encircling a big area around the hut. Was this meant to camouflage the hut? For what purpose was this hut built for?
We navigated around the roots and walked towards the hut. The hut was pretty tattered with a huge hole in the corrugated roof. The tree had over the years grew over the hut and became part of it, with the roots replacing part of the roof of the hut. The hut looked like it was built around the banyan tree, with part of the tree trunk visible from inside the hut. I noticed 2 small pots stacked within each other purposefully placed in the middle of the entrance. Was this some kind of offering? Not quite sure what this was, I did want to get too near it.
1315 | Walk out along the pipeline trail
We exited back to the main trail and followed it towards the pipeline trail. As this place was pretty isolated in the Mandai area, we had to walk quite far along the pipeline trail, under overhead bridges and across fields in the glaring sun before we finally spotted a bus stop where we could get a ride back.
My Thoughts
This was a simple hike in search of a banyan tree hut in the forest. Perhaps, it is just me who is amused by old heritage trees, but old trees feel like they have a kind of spiritual presence much less a majestic tree like the banyan tree. It seemed common for buildings to be built near old trees, perhaps as a means of camouflaging. So I wonder what purpose was this hut built for?
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