#fushan

After about forty-five minutes out from Wulai we finally arrived at Fushan Village. Lots of signage, in various conditions and accessibility, is available to guide the visitor. Note the romanised Atayal language ...

We decided to walk the ancient canal trail to the butterfly park  but first I took a snap of this wall design ...

Walking along the canal high above the village ...

The park itself was still under construction and butterfly season is Spring and early Summer so it didn’t take long to complete the park ...

The obligatory flora shot ...

Then it was back to the village ...

Brick, unlike tile over concrete, ages well in colour and texture ...

Fushan Village has different sections. There are useful signs like this to help you learn more about where you are ...

It says the Atayal originally settled in Fushan Village which omits the fact that the original settlers here arrived after journeying from locations in Nantou County in the center of the country.  Some of the restaurants in Tranan ...

And the picturesque river beside it ...

Tranan marks the end of Route 107 ...

Back to the main village around mountain, we took some time to walk through the buildings ...

... a field of fruit cacti ...

Everywhere, the village is decorated with distinct designs ...

The local elementary school is a centre of the community and functions as an emergency helipad ...

Then it was up the hill to the Presbyterian Church ...

This is the old church ...

... and this is the new one ...

We also briefly met the minister who was leaving after completing the Sunday morning service and tending to his congregation.  This is him below on a modified promotional poster for the film Seediq Bale in which he played Seediq revolt leader Mona Rudao ... (Note: it is an appropriative liberal interpretation / act of historical revisionism to say the Wushe Revolt was a part of the Taiwan Independence struggle) ...

... in real life I didn’t recognise him until EVA pointed out he was the very same guy.  The church, and faith, is also a major pillar of the community ...

Quite a few dogs milled around the village including a pack of five all slightly disabled canines hopping around.  The dogs were friendly but I generally kept my distance (literally once bitten twice shy) ...

Most of the buildings had painted murals on them, which one youngster explained were done by the families themselves ...

With time getting on and light fading we decided to make our way back to Wulai, stopping along the sheer mountainside road to take in the views ...

Taiwan is (should be) famous worldwide for it’s suspension bridges.  There are a plethora of them amongst the mountains, nearly all of them decorated beautifully and many of them at great height about the valley floor. Here’s one such example ...

Even the stone wall next to the road was carved with Atayal patterns ...

Two prominent components of Atayal culture are hunting and weaving, success at which are used as traditional markers of, respectively, male and female status and maturity within the community. Every male got a forehead tattoo at the age of fifteen or sixteen but only those who had completed a head hunt earned the right to have a prestigious chin tattoo. Likewise, women who demonstrated the ability to weave complex patterns and thread arrangements would earn the facial tattoo that stretched from ear to ear through and around the mouth. Hunting, and specifically with dogs, was a way for the community to add important component to their diet, hunting expeditions often taking up to two weeks or more out in the mountain forests.  The capture and killing of wild boar was both a key way for a hunter to gain respect / status but also a big boost for a village running low on food, especially in winter.  Thus we see this reflected in statues that can be found in most Atayal villages ...

On our way down to Wulai we stopped at Wulai Waterfall ...

There is a museum here that describes the history of the area as well as introduce the logging business and logging railway that economically transformed the valley and local communities. Apparently the railway which now runs from Wulai to the waterfall but used to run all the way up the valley almost as far as Fushan became a major tourist attraction in the 50s and 60s but was knocked out of commission by Typhoon Souledor. Work is currently underway to fix it.  The waterfall area is marked by a collection of hotels and spas, a cable car that spans the valley, and a street of restaurants and shops where you can buy various Atayal and indigenous themed souvenirs. We ate at a place called Ganafu (open weekends only) which served an absolutely amazing Trout burger.  The owners were super friendly and took the time to chat with us about Atayal culture and the local economy ...

We learned from them that Fushan Village was adapting to survive economically, most recently by increasing tourism (e.g. Butterfly Park, trails, hot spring spa) and will soon provide local guided tours. We noted one restaurant in Tranan was booked that day for a group of one hundred.  

Finally, we glided down the small road to Wulai (in mountains I usually run the engine on neutral and coast down the roads to eliminate engine noise and avoid disturbing hikers and wildlife I’m sharing the road with) and stopped by the Wulai Atayal Museum (Mandarin only site) ...

It’s a fascinating place and in it we met one Atayal woman who runs weaving classes and a souvenir shop. I asked why so many Atayal patterns were red, black, and white and was told that it was mostly owing to a lack of available materials to dye the thread in other colours. Personally, I find this tricolour motif of Atayal clothing and weaved products to be the most distinct and aesthetically pleasing of all the indigenous styles in Taiwan. Somewhat macabrely, the museum has a map showing where each indigenous group largely resides / originates from in Taiwan and appears to have a running tally of the number of members (who comprise about 550,000 or 2.6% of Taiwan’s total population).  It was a sombre to reflect that many of the tribes down to hundreds of members would, along with their languages, oral histories, and culture, probably expire in the coming decades.  Here’s the info board in question (apologies for the poor quality) ...

The museum is definitely worth a visit and contains enough material on three floors to spend a good few hours. There’s also lots of interesting quirks such as this sign on the Atayal tradition of head hunting which seems to have been written by someone keen to rebut certain allegations ...