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Officials implore visitors to respect stone carvings

Officials from the Council for Cultural Affairs urged the public yesterday to help protect 2,000-year-old stone carvings and sculptures located in the Central Mountain Range that have been damaged recently.

Officials, who visited the site with members of the Kaohsiung County Government last week to determine if it should be designated a national historic site, confirmed that the stone carvings had been damaged by fire and an industrial adhesive, which they said may have been used in the process of making stone rubbings.

The officials believe the fires were lit to burn away a 3.3cm-thick layer of moss covering the carvings, located in a remote area of Maolin Township (茂林) in Kaohsiung County.

Tsao Chia-wen (曹家文), head of a preparatory committee for the council's planned Cultural Assets Management Department, said he and his colleagues could not be certain if the damage was caused by members of an academic organization as reported by a media outlet a day earlier.

Tsao said that instructions and warning signs would be posted at the entrance of the Wanshan mountain area to remind people of the archeological and cultural value of the stone carvings and the importance of protecting them.

The series of carvings were first discovered by mountain climbers in 1972, and are believed to be the work of the Rukai, one of the nation's 12 indigenous groups, up to 2,000 years ago.

The 14 groups of carvings include images of human faces, geometric patterns composed of circles and hundred-pacer snakes, a totem of the Rukai people. They are seen as treasures of Aboriginal culture and history.

The Kaohsiung County government designated the area as a historic site in 2006, but Tsao was unsure yesterday if the site would be upgraded to a national historic site.

He said a committee established to consider the matter would meet again soon to discuss the site's archeological, ethnic, artistic and architectural significance.

A resolution on the site's status is expected to be made late next month, Tsao said.

The council's Cultural Assets Management Department preparatory office said organizations or individuals who are interested in viewing or taking impressions of the Wanshan Aboriginal stone carvings should first apply with the Kaohsiung County Government to obtain a permit.

The site can only be reached by crossing mountains and rivers on foot.

Those who damage artifacts face fines up to NT$1 million (US$33,000) or jail terms of up to five years, the officials said.
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