Before the National Parks Board and the advent of tree-huggers, Singapore and Southeast Asia has had a long tradition of tree-worship, sometimes as part of a Hindu or Buddhist popular reverence or even to ancient animistic practices. Some species of trees have particular significance to different religions, and in Singapore one can still find shrines erected at trees around the island.

yg blogs about a local African mahogany that became a subject of worship in 2007:

about three years ago, in september 2007, a tree, an african mahogany, in jurong west attracted a lot of attention. in fact, the ‘magic monkey tree’ was reported in the local papers as well as in some international papers. it arose from the discovery of a callus on a tree which appeared monkey-like. it drew large crowds to pray at the tree.

the belief that certain spirits inhabit trees is not new. when i was young, i dared not go near banana trees at night. this was because of the many stories i had heard related to the banana tree. some people even claimed to have seen the ‘pontianak’ that resided in these trees. according to these ‘brave’ people, to see the ‘pontianak’ you needed to tie a red string to the tree and, at midnight, the ‘pontianak’ would appear to you.

You can read the rest of yg’s post here. Is there a tree shrine near you? Who worships there and what can be seen at the tree?