Stone Forest
— — grey limestone towers standing in for a forest.
Not only on a wall.
“A 270-million-year-old karst landscape in eastern Yunnan, where the limestone has weathered into upright pillars that read, from a distance, like a forest of grey trees. The Sani — a branch of the Yi people — have lived among the stones for generations and tell the story of Ashima, the young woman who became one of the pillars. The main park sits about an hour and a half by road southeast of Kunming. Early mornings, before the tour groups arrive, the paths are quiet and the stone holds the cool of the night. from the studio
Stone Forest, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Stone Forest — Shilin — lies in Shilin Yi Autonomous County in Yunnan Province, about 90 kilometres southeast of the provincial capital Kunming. The scenic area covers roughly 350 square kilometres of karst terrain on a plateau around 1,750 metres above sea level. The limestone began forming on a shallow sea floor in the Permian, about 270 million years ago, was uplifted with the rest of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, and has since been carved by rain and underground water into tall fluted pillars. In 2007 the Stone Forest was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the South China Karst.
The pillars are pure marine limestone, weathered along vertical joints by slightly acidic rainwater that cuts the stone faster down the fractures than across the flat. The result is the fluted, blade-edged towers that give the forest its name — some standing more than 30 metres tall. Two main groves draw most visitors: the Greater Stone Forest, with the largest concentration of pillars and the famous Sword Peak Pond, and the Lesser Stone Forest, where Ashima Rock — a slender pillar said to be the petrified form of the Sani heroine — stands by itself. Naigu Stone Forest, a quieter grove, sits a short drive to the north.
The scenic area is open daily, generally from around 7:30 a.m. into early evening, with the main entrance at the Greater Stone Forest gate. Tickets cover the main groves and the shuttle that links them; the walk through the principal trails takes two to three hours. Getting there is straightforward: high-speed trains from Kunming South Station reach Shilin in about 20 minutes, and bus and car routes follow the G78 expressway. The Torch Festival, the major Yi celebration of the year, falls on the 24th day of the sixth lunar month — late July or early August — and fills the park with bonfires, wrestling, and Sani song.