Renowned hunter and Yushan National Park ranger Lin Yuan-yuan (林淵源), of the Bunun people, died from throat cancer at his home in Hualien County on Tuesday at the age of 59. His Bunun name was Qaisul Istasipal.
Lin’s knowledge of the mountains proved instrumental for academics studying Formosan black bears or cataloging ancient Bunun paths connecting historic settlements in the area, Chief Lin Shui-yuan (林水源) of the Sinkan community and Lin Yuan-yuan’s elder brother said.
“He was very well-known among the Bunun and people called him ‘little Tarzan’ for his exceptional fieldcraft,” Lin Shui-yuan said.
Photo: Hua Meng-ching, Taipei Times
Lin Yuan-yuan was dressed for his wake by his friends and family in a traditional Bunun costume, including a headpiece made of muntjac horns and sea shells.
Guests included Lee Hsiang-hsiu (李香秀), the director of the 2013 Golden Harvest Award-winning documentary Black Bear Forest and many academics whose research Lin Yuan-yuan had helped.
Prior to becoming a park ranger, Lin Yuan-yuan was a hunter who stalked the high-altitude forests in Yushan’s eastern reaches, Lin Shui-yuan said, adding that his brother was taught how to hunt and trap at the age of four by their father.
Lin Yuan-yuan killed his first black bear at the age of 16 and once caught 70 muntjacs in one month during a legendary hunting expedition, Lin Shui-yuan said.
Lin Shui-yuan said that slaying a black bear is a solemn and mournful occasion for a Bunun hunter, because the Bunun people believe that black bears are their friends and kin, and the killer must sing requiems for the bear’s soul when he returns from the mountain and live in a hut outside the village and away from his family for one week, as a gesture of respect.
When Yushan National Park’s Nanan Service Station (南安) was founded in 1992, Lin Yuan-yuan was selected to be among the first group of specialists to work there, having passed state qualification exams that year, Lin Shui-yuan said, adding that his brother remained a park ranger for more than two decades until his retirement.
Lin Yuan-yuan has assisted academics working on ecological research and topographical surveys in the national park, including Bunan architecture and settlement expert Lin Yi-hung (林一宏), trail researcher Yang Nan-chun (楊南郡) and Hwang Mei-hsiu (黃美秀), a noted Formosan black bear expert and professor at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology.
Hwang said that in 1998 she began field work on the Formosan black bear without any prior knowledge of wilderness skills, and Lin Yuan-yuan became her trusted colleague and guide, teaching her how to track bears and set snares, assisting in the capture and cataloguing of 14 bears that provided the data for her doctoral thesis.
Lee said that he brought his latest documentary — about the work of Hwang and Lin Yuan-yuan — for the Lin brothers to watch so that they could view it before its release later in summer, and that they saw the film together on Monday, the evening before Lin Yuan-yuan died.
Lin Shui-yuan said that the film seemed to have comforted his brother, who passed away peacefully the next day at about 4am.
In April last year, Lin Yuan-yuan participated in a memorial service marking the centennial of the Dafen Incident — the 1930 uprising of the Bunun people against the Japanese colonial government — guiding young Bununs to a mountain summit to perform funerary rites honoring slain ancestors.
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