Once upon a time, in acient China, there was a place called □ Province. There stood a great mountain, and at its summit was a stupa.
At the foot of the mountain lived an old woman. She was about eighty years old.
Once every day, the old woman climbed the mountain and worshipped the stupa. It was a great and lofty mountain, and the path from the foot to the summit was steep, difficult, dangerous, and long. Yet the old woman never failed to climb to the summit and worship the stupa. She did so even when it rained, even on days when fierce winds blew, and even when thunder roared. She was not deterred by the freezing cold of winter or the unbearable heat of summer. Not a single day passed without her climbing the mountain and paying her respects to the stupa.
She continued this practice for many years. People knew that she did this, but they had no idea why. They simply assumed that she was a devout believer who worshipped the stupa.
One particularly hot summer day, several young men climbed to the summit of the mountain and sat beneath the stupa to cool themselves. The old woman came climbing up to the stupa, leaning on her cane with her back bent and wiping the sweat from her face.
She walked around the stupa, carefully looking at it.
The young men assumed that she was merely walking around the stupa in worship. But the old woman examined every part of it. She went around it not just once, but again and again.
The young men became curious.
“What could this old woman possibly be thinking? It must be terribly difficult for her to climb this mountain every day. If she comes again today, let’s ask her.”
As usual, the old woman had struggled up the mountain, almost crawling her way to the top.
The young men asked her:
“It is difficult enough for young people like us to come all the way up here just to cool ourselves. Yet you don’t seem to come here to cool yourself, nor do you appear to have anything else to do. Why do you climb this mountain every single day despite your old age? It is very strange. Would you please tell us the reason?”
The old woman replied:
“I can certainly understand why young people like you would find it strange. But my coming here to look at this stupa is not something I began doing only recently. For more than seventy years, ever since I was old enough to understand what I was doing, I have climbed this mountain every day and examined the stupa.”
“Then please tell us why.”
The old woman said:
“My father lived to be one hundred and twenty years old before he died. My grandfather lived to be one hundred and thirty. I was told that his father lived to be more than two hundred years old. They say that those men left behind these words:
‘When blood stains this stupa, this mountain will collapse and become a deep sea.’
My father left these words with me:
‘I live at the foot of this mountain. If the mountain collapses, I will be caught in the landslide and die. Therefore, if I ever see blood on the stupa, I will flee from this place.’
That is why I examine the stupa every day.”
When the young men heard this, they mocked her and burst out laughing.
“How terrifying! When the mountain starts to collapse, be sure to let us know.”
The old woman did not realize that they were making fun of her.
“Of course I will. How could I possibly try to save my own life without telling you and the others?”
With that, she once again walked all the way around the stupa, carefully inspecting it, and then went home.
Afterward, the young men said to one another:
“That old woman won’t come again today. Tomorrow she’ll come back to inspect the stupa. Let’s frighten her and have a good laugh watching her run around in terror.”
They drew blood, smeared it all over the stupa, and then went down the mountain.
When they reached the village, they told everyone what they had done.
“We always wondered why that old woman who lives at the foot of the mountain climbed all the way to the summit every day to inspect the stupa. So we asked her, and she told us this strange story. We thought we’d frighten her tomorrow and watch her run around in panic, so we smeared blood all over the stupa before coming down.”
The villagers listened and laughed.
“Surely the mountain will really collapse now!”
They all burst into laughter.
The next day, the old woman climbed the mountain as usual. When she looked at the stupa, she saw that it was thickly covered with a great deal of fresh blood.
The moment she saw it, she was thrown into terrible agitation. Her legs trembling, she ran down the mountain as though tumbling headlong, and then went around the entire village shouting at the top of her voice:
“People of this village! Leave this place immediately and save your lives! This mountain will soon collapse and become a deep sea!”
When she reached home, she had her children and grandchildren pack up all their belongings, and she left the village.
The young men who had smeared the blood on the stupa saw what she was doing and rolled with laughter.
Then, without any warning, a tremendous roaring sound arose all around them.
“Is it a fierce wind? Is it thunder?”
They wondered what was happening.
Suddenly, the sky became pitch-black, and the entire scene took on a strangely terrifying appearance.
Before long, the mountain itself began to shake violently.
“What is happening? What is happening?”
The people cried out in confusion.
Then the mountain began to collapse. The earth broke apart and came crashing down, more and more of the mountain giving way.
Everyone shouted:
“That old woman was telling the truth!”
And they fled for their lives.
Some people happened to escape, but most were thrown into utter confusion. Children no longer knew where their parents were, and parents no longer knew which way their children had fled. Their household possessions were, of course, completely lost.
All the people could do was scream at the tops of their voices.
Only the old woman escaped safely. Taking her children and grandchildren with her, she fled before the collapse began, without losing a single one of her possessions. She took refuge in another village and lived there in peace.
As for those who had mocked and laughed at the old woman’s words, they were too slow to escape and all of them died.
We must not disregard the words of the elderly.
And so the mountain collapsed without leaving a trace, and became a deep sea.
Tragic Landslides in New Zealand (Jan, 2026)
This strange event has been handed down from generation to generation.
[Translation]
Kaori Sekijitu / Siro Inuzuka
This text was created by using chatGPT and Gemini to translate a modern Japanese translation into English, and then making some modifications. There may be errors in the English expressions. Please correct any mistakes.
[Cooperation]
Shinichi Kusano
●Japanese
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