Thursday, August 9, 2007

LOTUS FEET OF CHINESE WOMEN

AN ELDERLY CHINESE WOMAN SHOWING HER LOTUS FOOT
THE SPECIAL FOOT WEAR FOR WOMEN WITH LOTUS FEET


The Chinese custom of binding feet of girls is some 1000 years old.According to a Chinese legend this custom developed after TANG DYNASTY EMPEROR who was in love with a concubine .The concubine used to wrap her tiny feet in silk when she danced. In China the girls feet were bound so tightly & early in life that they were unable to dance & had difficulty in walking .By the time the girl is 3 years old her toes were first broken & her feet were bound tightly with cloth strips to prevent the feet to grow larger than 10 Cms due to this extremely painful practice the soles of feet bend in extreme concavity.The feet formed due to this custom is known as Lotus Feet.
Foot binding ceased in 20th century due to increasing western influence , however in remote mountainous region of China women still had their feet bound .Today in China very few elderly women have Lotus foot.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Footbinding didn't generally begin to occur until a girl was 5 or 6, sometimes 7 years of age. Rarely if ever did three year olds begin the binding process. Just thought you might like to know.