Preliminary Study On Geomantic Forests In Hainan Island

Under the influence of Chinese traditional culture, geomantic forests are a special kind of plant resources. It is not only a representative of the native vegetation, but also closely relative to the beliefs, folk customs and cultural habits of native people. Thus it reflects rich historical and cultural connotation, national features and ecological significance.The geomantic forests of Hainan Island are distributed mainly around the villages, houses, temples, celebrities’residences or cemeteries, and preserved well due to villagers’believes. With the development of economy, the geomantic forests of Hainan Island are easy to be disturbed and even damaged by human activities. In order to provide valueable advices for the new rural environment landscape planning and village tourism development in Hainan Island, a comprehensive investigation of the geomantic forests of Hainan Island was conducted. Based on literature study and vegetation investigation on more than30villages, some valuable results were found as follows:1. The geomantic forests of Hainan Island are under good reservation. They have a long history, rich plant sepcies, and many ancient trees. The ancient inhabitants of Hainan Island were closely related to the geomantic forests, with strong consciousness of protection and use of geomantic trees. The origin of the geomantic forests is relative to geomantic omen, folk beliefs or religious beliefs.2. The geomantic forests, rivers, ponds, ancient wells, buildings, mountains and coast make up a specific geomantic layout. According to the spatial form of exterior landscape, the geomantic forests can be divided into aggregated type and free type, or divided by topography into three types:plain type, mountain type and coastal type. The aggregated type of geomantic forests mainly forms a circle layout, a line layout, and a half-moon layout. The free type is mainly made up of scattered trees. The main vegetation types of geomantic forests in Hainan Island are evergreen monsoon forest, tropical lowland rainforest and mangroves. The geomantic trees represent regional characters, including commonly tropical plants, fruit trees and national protected plants. 3. Hainan Island has a long history of cultivating eomantic forests. The common geomantic single trees usually have a well developed root system, lush foliage, abundant fruits, colorful flowers and sweet scent. The common geomantic single trees, such as Ficus spp., Antiaris toxicaria, Cocos nucifera, Areca catechu, Litchi chinensis, Dimocarpus longan, Bombax ceiba, Tamarindus indica, Terminalia catappa, and Plumeria rubra, also appear in high frequency. They implicate historical culture, which can be developed and utilized.4. Three typical village were selected for detail vegetation investigations. The dominant species are Litsea variabili, Aphanamixis polystachya, Mallotus paniculatus, and some tropical fruit trees. The diversity of plant species is high, but tree species are more than shrubs and herbs. The geomantic forests are disturbed by human activities.According to the present conditions of the geomantic forests of Hainan Island, it is necessary to intensify conservation efforts on the geomantic forests. Measures are suggested, including reasonable laws and policies, improvement of environmental awareness, reasonable land use layout and utilization. The application of the geomantic forests in new rural environment landscape construction and rural tourism was also discussed.