Pandas 

Back to South American Imports

In an ancient mountain forest, in a certain southern province, in China, there lived four girls that earned their living cutting bamboo. Their names were Losang, Gansi, Szechi, and Shanchi. They were bright and beautiful children who worked hard. Each day they would make their way into the forest to harvest the bamboo. In the spring they would gather the youngest, tenderest, shoots which would be used for cooking many delicious dishes. They would gather the young green poles to sell to the bird cage maker down in the village so that he could build the fine birdcages for the brightly colored and sweet-songed birds he would sell. As the seasons would change to summer and fall the girls would harvest the larger poles for the crafts people who would use the strong bamboo for building and making housing, furniture, water pipes, and household things. Although the larger poles of bamboo were harder to cut down and take into the village the girls had a good friend to help them. He was a white bear who helped cut and carry the bamboo. The kind and gentle white bear’s name was Mo. Mo was a vegetarian and only ate bamboo. He loved his young friends, they would sing and tell him silly stories and jokes that would make him laugh. And when winter came and the mountains would be full of snow, he would visit with his young friends, keeping warm by their fire and listening to their tales. One very sad day, the white bear came upon his young friends. They were dead. They had been attacked by a snow leopard. With a broken heart, he called his relatives to help with the funeral for the young girls. The white bears bound their arms with strips of cloth that had been dyed black. It was a very solemn procession. The poor bears patted and hugged one another, weeping sadly along the way. The dye rubbed off onto the hands and arms of the grieving bears and made huge black marks around their eyes when they wiped away their tears. Kuan Yi, the goddess of mercy, hearing the pitiful cries of Mo and his relatives came down from the heavens. When she learned of the fate of the young girls she took pity on them. Because of their love for their mountain home she made them into four mountain peaks so they would be immortal. Because of Mo’s great love for his friends she made him the guardian of the bamboo forest. This is why the Four Girls Mountain looks over the bamboo forest and why today panda bears are marked with black eyes and arms.