A farmer in Tianzhu County of Southwest China's Guizhou Province has preserved three powerful antique bows. (Photo/
(ECNS) -- A farmer in Tianzhu County of Southwest China's Guizhou Province has preserved three powerful antique bows that have a shooting range of 500 meters, a local news portal reported.
Wu Zhanwu, resident of the county's Panzhai Village, said he is the fourth generation to inherit the weapons in his family, which has a long hunting tradition. Each bow weighs about four kilograms and is about 1.6 meters long.
The 61-year-old keeps the bows high and out of reach in his house and warns visitors not to walk under them because "it will offend the gods".
Wu said he remembers his father and grandfather killed a tiger when he was about 6 years old. But he didn't see first-hand if they killed theit with the bows.
Wu's family is known in the village to have a mysterious tiger-hunting book that details procedures such as taboos, code words and incantations. Some villagers also said the bows helped them survive famine in the past.
"My family killed 14 tigers and numerous other wild animals in 1957 when my sister was born," said Wu.
No longer a hunter, he now lives by growing chestnut and Camellia oleifera trees.
His Miao village is scattered across the mountainside with about 100 households.
