Biyi (The bamboo house):
Back in the old days, traditional houses made by bamboo were very common. Sadly as the days go by, traditional technique is gradually forgotten and houses came to be made of concrete and steel. This Biyi you see in front of you was built in 2021, by a project from the association of community development, after gathering the residents in the community and thorough field research of the traditional constructing technique. Inside the house there are features of the old time indigenous devices such as the three-stone-stove, three stones representing core members of a family: the father, the mother, the children; and the hanging shelf for purposes of smoking meat or wood. A little fun fact about this house is that, although the elders helped build the place, they weren’t actually participants either in the age when the ancestors still lived in these bamboo houses. They too were learning along the way to best help recreate an important part of their culture.

Daka (A sentry at the entrance of the village):
This is more of an item built merely for sightseeing purposes, and not a very thorough one, a contractor built this sentry twenty years ago, it is unclear which tribe they took as reference when they decided the clothes and totems to put on these statues. Also, the function of a sentry is defense from outside threads, but the trukus live in the mountain, due to the natural geographic advantages, actually, they didn’t need a sentry. As you can see, looking at the daka in front of you, there are no stairs to climb up, because incidents happened that people climbed up drunk and had slept inside, so the stairs were removed to prevent such incidents from happening again.

Taiwan Christian Hualien Holiness Church:
The church was built in the 1950s; throughout history, there have been 5 churches in the tribe, 4 of them are churches established by early missionaries from the states, the Christian Holiness Church was the only one established by Japanese missionaries. Eventually it was shut down, and since it was during the postwar period after world war II, the elders' joke about how it’s because the United States beat Japan. Whilst the real reason might be the pastors sent from Christian Holiness Church where all outsiders of the tribe, and the other 4 Presbyterian Church nurtured local people to preach in Truku’s mother tongue.
*Diamond shaped totem on the wall:
A diamond shaped totem indicates the eye of the ancestors, it’s a basic geometrical shape to be creative and extend upon on daily used items. Putting the totem around means that the ancestors watch over everything to give their blessings and protection all the time. Legends says that there was a major pandemic, many died, but those who sewed the diamond shape into their clothes were protected

Entrance section 5, the bridge “Gogumi”:
Gogumi stands for “section 5”in Japanese, left from the community administration system of the Japanese colonial period. The bridge is the boundary, crossing it is the land of the families who live in section 5. Most of them are smaller families. When a festival is hosted in the tribe, presents are given equally to every section and people in section 5 are fewer in numbers to share the same amount of presents. You can see Shibow mountain from here, people in section 5 used to live in Shibow mountain, they were forced to move down so that the Japanese could govern the tribe more conveniently.

Neighbours’ totems:
Although now houses are no longer the traditional bamboo style anymore, trukus still put their traditional symbols on the front door. Look over here, you can see the loom, facial tattoos, machete, bow and arrow, bamboo baskets and such.
About the tradition of facial tattoos, there is a legend: there was a great flood, all living creatures died except for a pair of siblings, the elder sister and a younger brother, they hid in a mortar and at last drifted to safety. The sister saw that all their people were dead, while she wants to carry on the blood of the tribe so that their race avoid extinction, the brother refused to mate with his own sister, to trick the brother, the elder sister told him that there will be a beautiful woman ready to meet him in a cave, so the next day the brother went to that cave and bear children with the woman who had tattoos on her face, not knowing it’s his own sister. The blood of the tribe was carried on, and ever since, facial tattoos became an important sign of coming of age, representing a full grown man.. A girl has to have excellence in sewing and looming to get her facial tattoos, and the boys will have to earn their facial tattoo on the chin by being a great hunter, or complete a headhunting.

Store of animal feed:
Elders in the tribe like to raise their own chicken, in their words, god-knows what they are feeding the chicken out there. Other than the animal feed from the store, the elders feed their chicken mostly vegetables or leftovers from the dining table. A chicken is a wonderful token for the locals, especially to their closest friends and relatives, or to send to children that went out of the tribe for jobs or to study.
*Speaking of tokens of meat, there is also the tradition of pig slaying ritual. When a major personnel change takes place, like marriage, divorce, childbirth, or when bad signs continue to happen, there will be a pig slaying ritual. The pig is a sacrifice for the ancestors, to inform them of exciting news or ask for shelter from a bad one. When it’s a joyful pig slaying ritual, the host will invite as many friends and families as he wants, but when it’s to avoid bad luck, the host will keep the ritual between the family. The pig should be divided and shared to families equally.

Jia-Huei Grocery store:
It seems that fate wants every family in section 5 to at least once open a grocery store, at the end most of them were shut down and only the one in front of you lasted the last 20 years. It still provides treats that cost down to only one Taiwan dollar, services include collecting packages for the residence in the tribe, a claw machine right outside the shop and such, the grocery store is practically the community center.

A walking house:
The building in front of you is built on a concrete base but a wooden construction on top. This shows that forestry was an important local industry. Imagine in the old days, after a real estate deal was signed, the youngsters would lift the entire house up and carry it to its next address..

The Ciyakang relics and the legend of the giant:
From 2000 B.C. to the beginning of the common era, indigenous people in Taiwan lived here for 2000 years. A considerable number of ancient jewelry and jade products were discovered at this place. The word Ciyakang means “sunken valley”, due to the precious accessories dug out, this might be once the best developed location in ancient Taiwan. Our team works a project with the local government to take our guests up to the mountain experiencing archeology.
Haru, Mawi: legend says that the giant used to live with humans, with his good will he reached hands to help humans get past the flood, with his bad will he toppled his hands and watched the humans drown, or rape human female and cause their death. The humans no longer want to live at the giants’ mercy, hence they plan to kill the giant. They cooked a great rock burning red and plan to toss it into the sleeping giant’s mouth, but the rock was too hot to get any closer, and no other creature would help, at last a bunch of white eyed nun babbler called the Silsil helped push the rock, and the giant swallowed the burning rock. In his agony he craved for water, but the streaming river was not enough for him to drink, so he ran from north to Ciyakang and stepped across Taitung, his running steps created the east rift valley. In the end, the giant died in the sea, his feet became the Orchid island and the Green island, and the Silsil bird became the guardian bird of the tribe.

The Yayung Qicing river:
The region of Qicing at Yayung river is called “the river blocked from sun”. It has complicated terrain and water runs through all the year. Activities like drawing water of daily usage and hunting in section 5 Gogumi surrounded this area. We have a unit to manage this water source apart from the official system of water supply. Managing maintenance, cleansing and water quality tests. This water source is deeply important to our tribe. The water corporation proposed several times that the tribe should connect back to the ordinary water supply system, all rejected by people in the tribe.

Shansu field:
Shansu is a kind of edible fern, called the bird-nest fern. It was just wild vegetables that hunters used to eat when they ran out of food at work. The stronger parts of the plant are also used to build temporary working shelters. When the Japanese came, they tasted Shansu, and they were so blown away they promoted Shansu to become regular farming vegetables. This is a 15 square hectare Shansu field, harvest requires an early hour time, 4 or 5 o’clock before the sun rises, because once exposed to sun burn the newborn leaves will not be edible anymore. We also have a Shansu harvest activity to sign up for, we can teach you the Shansu tunes if you like!

Chinshue canal:
Constructed during the 1920s to 30s, built to irrigate the Japanese paddy field, after the national government water conservancy association took over the canal, the association encourages farmers to farm water terrace fields, but people in the tribe was used to dry farming crop like millet, taro, sweet potatoes and red quinoa. So the canal became a source irrelevant to the tribe.

“Qmpah” means labor, there is a lot of work that needs a hand from everyone in the tribe, here we conduct life together. This park used to be the place where we tried to revive traditional red quinoa farming. In 2022 we gathered manpower in the village to complete this workhouse, with the help of the elders using wood and bamboo, it took 4 months to finish the construction. Picking the right bamboos was a challenge, it wasn’t at all easy to collect enough bamboos in the same size at the same quality. The space contains a farming area, Chinese silk-plant field, artery area, kitchen and dining tables. This workhouse perfectly presents the expression of “one for all and all for one.”

Tutu Hlama (rice steamed in bamboo):
The bamboo was vital to our tribe, it makes instruments, builds traps and becomes the core of our houses, sadly time comes to the modern era, and bamboos slowly fade out of our lives. Practically speaking, bamboos are not easy to nurture! It needs weed control and protection from monkeys which will eat up the newly sprung bamboos. This dish, the Tutu Hlama is served only on festivals, the sticky feature of rice steamed in bamboo speaks the spirit of unity. Bamboos picked for the dish are generally 2 or 3 years grown.

Hlama Blbul (Banana rice):
Banana trees are common fieldside plants, their roots cleanse the water in the field, and bananas are instant food to hungry farmers. The name Hlama Blbul came around the Japanese colonial period, traditionally using millet, now using sticky rice. The dish is served on important festivals or on occasions of treating valued guests. Picking overgrown bananas is the key point of this dish, so that overgrown harvest is not thrown away, plus the sweetness of overgrown bananas is good for hard working farmers’ blood sugar. The dish could be served as both desert and main course, the banana leaves are strong enough after boiling to work as the cooking container.

Hlama Sari (Taro rice):
There is a specific species of taro to make this dish, using the Sari Biyuhuq taro. Sari Biyuhuq is more sticky than other taro spiecies. When picking the taro, we take the newly grown crop around the main plant we call the mother taro, so that the plant can keep on growing. This is also a festival dish, the secrecy of the dish is to add black sugar in.