He meant that the Memorial Plaza is so weighted with meaning, and emotions run so deep, that something as common as a dying tree could take on symbolic significance.

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Say a homeowner is advised by a tree trimmer that a backyard tree is dying and needs to be chopped down.

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One tells the tale of a young girl who turned into a tree after dying unhappily and brought sorrow to the Hani people.

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Outside I could see a half dozen wooden stilt homes surrounded by muddy patches and palm trees, a clothesline hung with shirts and sarongs, tree branch kindling stacked under a storage shed, a scrabbly vegetable garden where smoke plumed from a dying fire.

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