Anu met Lao Lai, a wild birds photographer (capturing bird pictures in their natural habitat for the past 15 years) when she was doing her masters in MCUT, Taiwan.

We often wondered how someone could work so passionately without any monetary benefits.

We were deeply touched by his pure joy in pursuing this work without expecting anything in return—doing the work for the sake of doing it! His dedication became a great inspiration for us.

Anu and I thought, why not share this with the world in our own capacity! Great art deserves to be showcased.

As we searched for names, we stumbled upon Torii, which also means a bird’s rest. Thus, Torii Nature was born. Now, Torii Tales is an expansion of Torii Nature—a place to share tales of people, nature, and places!

Back Story

For few days when she was passing by her dormitory, Lao Lai has been shooting newly hatched baby birds for a couple of days by then. She greeted him and they exchanged few words. And it continued for few days. It was difficulty for both of them to communicate because Lao Lai cannot speak english and Anu don’t speak chinese but they both understand english. So they use Google Translate app to communicate!

With time they formed a good connection and Lao Lai started sharing his amazing photographs with her. Photography is his passion and he never wanted to monetise his skills. But Anu felt sad that these beautiful photos were kept form the visibility to the world and she wanted to do something about that. I also joined with them when I came back to Taiwan for my PhD and had the same feeling as Anu that we should do something in our capacity to share these amazing pictures.

So we wanted to start an Instagram page and looking for names which are related to Nature, Birds and something meaningful and suddenly found the name Torii.

💡From Japanese 鳥居 (torii, literally means “bird abode”).

In Japanese culture, a Torii is a traditional gate that marks the transition from the mundane to the sacred. It symbolizes a journey, a passage, and a connection between the physical world and a more spiritual, tranquil realm. It felt perfect for the kind of content we wanted to create—a gateway to appreciating nature & art.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torii

Torii is a traditional gate that marks the transition from the mundane to the sacred

Finally we took the name TORII NATURE for the Instagram page. As we started making content we some felt the need to do something more beyond our comfort zone, something to share about life and struggles and help the other people like us coming to Taiwan and wanted to create content.

Torii has a deep meaning in many parts of the world. This word captures the unity and diversity of different Asian countries where it is called by slightly different names but holds the same essence: Japan – TORII, India – TORANA, China – PAILOU, Korea – HONGSAL-MUN.

For us, Torii represents transition from mundane to spiritual. We consider life a sacred gift and want to share positive stories, guides and vlogs (tales) of people and our love for nature through Torii Tales.

We are so happy and grateful to have Lao Lai’s support and guidance in this journey. Thank you for being a part of Torii Tales. We would be thrilled to have you join us in this adventure.