The surplus of Taiwan’s public welfare lottery is being used to help the transmission of aboriginal culture. The Indigenous Culture Park has established the “Taiwan indigenous people’s tribal academy.” Their first training course is to teach students how to build slate houses. The first course, lasting nine months, started in March. The age of the students ranges between 20 something up to 70 years of age. Some students chose to quit their jobs to entirely devote themselves to study. Students made a special trip to Old Cijia Village last Tuesday, where many slate houses still exist, to take a class in which they learned the traditional techniques used in building these houses.
The Taiwan indigenous people’s tribal academy was established on March 2 in order to preserve traditional aboriginal architecture and construction techniques. The first course teaches aboriginal people’s traditional architecture, construction and maintenance, as well as garden construction and horticulture. Each student receives a NT$23,000 monthly salary during the course, which attracted many people from the village to register.
“Slate differs in hardness and is categorized either as male or female to be used in different parts of a construction,” 27-year-old villager Tanubak said. He added that aboriginal culture is principally transmitted orally and that traditional techniques will disappear as old tribesmen pass away. Tanubak lives in the city and studied catering at school. When he graduated, he became a percussion music teacher. Although his salary was much better then compared to what he earns now during the course, he made the decision to come back and devote himself to the village. This is why he resigned from his teaching job and focused on learning how to build slate houses. Now he already knows how to draw blueprints and choose slate.
Photo: Lin Meng-ting, Liberty Times
照片:自由時報記者林孟婷
Fang Shih-cheng is 70 years old this year. He is the eldest among the 30 students. He used to build slate houses and in order to further his understanding of the different techniques used by each village, he took part in the course and started learning from scratch.
An official of the Indigenous Culture Park said that aboriginal people’s traditional architecture is closely related to plants and that the use of certain plants around the stone house has a special significance. The course gradually introduces traditional knowledge, starting from historical and cultural backgrounds, land choice, the gathering of slate, ground preparation, concepts of space, construction, and carpentry, all up to plant cultivation.
To deepen the students’ understanding of the cultural history of the tribes and the current state of slate house culture and traditional horticulture, the class went to Chunrih Township in Pingtung County last Tuesday to visit Old Cijia village, which has been around for 300 years and which still has about 50 stone houses.
(LIBERTY TIMES, TRANSLATED BY TAIJING WU)
公益彩券盈餘也幫助原鄉傳承文化。原住民族文化園區成立「台灣原住民族部落學院」,第一個培訓班是教蓋石板屋,三月起為期九個月,學員從二十多歲到七十歲都有,有人特地辭去工作致力學習,學員上週二還特別跑到石板屋部落的老七佳上課,實地學習祖先的石板屋智慧。
台灣原住民族部落學院三月二日掛牌成立,為維護傳統建築技法,首先開社「原住民傳統建築建造維修及庭園營造植栽撫育」培訓班,學員參加培訓期間,每月有二萬三千元薪資,吸引不少部落人士報名。
「石板依硬度不同,也分為公、母,用在建物不同構造上!」二十七歲的族人達努巴克說,原住民文化主要靠口傳,隨著部落老人凋零,傳統技藝也將失傳,他住在市區,唸書學的是餐飲,畢業後擔任打擊樂老師,雖然薪水比培訓班還多,但他想回部落付出己力,所以辭去教學工作專心學習蓋石板屋,現已會畫設計圖、採集石板。
方實呈今年七十歲,是三十名學員中年紀最長的,他以前蓋過石板屋,為了更深入了解各部落石板屋的不同搭建法,也參加培訓班從頭開始學。
文化園區管理局官員表示,原住民傳統建築與植物息息相關,石板屋週邊應種何種植物都有深厚意義,培訓課從歷史文化背景、選地、石材採集、整地、空間概念、施工、木作加工到植栽培育,一步步傳授先人的智慧。
為提升學員對部落人文歷史、石板屋文化及植栽環境現況的認識,培訓班上週二前往春日鄉,探訪有三百多年歷史、現存約五十棟石板屋的老七佳部落。
(自由時報記者羅欣貞)
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