Mon, Jul 26, 2004 page2

• Saved by a dream of sacred trees

  The Atayal village of Smangus had fallen on hard times, but an elder's vision launched a search for giant trees that gave the community a new life and firm connections to the modern era

  • By Lindy Yeh / STAFF REPORTER
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  When the flood triggered by Tropical Storm Mindulle destroyed many Atayal villages in Nantou County earlier this month, Hsinchu County's Atayal settlements as a whole were not affected much. The only loss was some peaches swept down by the storm along with some fallen rocks.

  But the fallen boulders on the roads were immediately cleared, as roads bring tourists to the scenic villages.

  Like many other mountainous scenic communities, Smangus, a tiny village with a population of only 134 people, thrives on tourism. It can't afford to leave any damaged roads, given there is only one single-lane work road leading to the Atayal settlement.

  

  The biggest sacred tree in the Smangus community's sacred grove is about 2,500 years old and 35m tall.

  PHOTO: LINDY YEH, TAIPEI TIMES

  Recent visitors of Smangus would have difficulty imagining life there eight years ago, before the road reached the village. During the past eight years, tourism has created income and job opportunities for the settlement.

  The Atayal settlements located in Hsinchu County's remote mountains were once dubbed "the dark settlements" (黑色部落) because of their underdevelopment and geographical isolation.

  Among them, Smangus was the most backward and remote.

  

  With fewer than two dozen households, Smangus now has postal service, connections to the Internet and modern roads.

  PHOTO: LINDY YEH, TAIPEI TIMES

  Only in 1979, did the community gain electricity, the last village in Taiwan to have power.

  It was also the last one to have car access to the outside world when a work road reaching Sman-gus was inaugurated.

  Without a road, there was not even postal service, because the postman would not take a whole day walking back and forth only to deliver a letter.

  While unemployment remains a serious problem for Aborigines, there is not a single jobless person in Smangus, thanks to the practice of a collective business system created three years ago.

  The villagers once lived on small incomes by growing mushrooms. Before a road was opened, the villagers had to carry dried mushrooms on their backs along a mountain trail for at least six hours to the nearest village on another mountain, Hsinkuang (新光), for trading.

  "The mushroom trading lasted from 1970 to 1991. Before that, we led a self-sufficient life by hunting and growing millet," said Yuraw Icyang (曾傳光), a young leader of the settlement.

  But during the 1980s and 1990s, as mushroom smuggling from China was rampant, local mushroom prices fell.

  "Many villagers moved out to earn a living. That left only some 10 households in Smangus," Yuraw said.

  Without any educational facilities, kids had to attend primary school in Hsinkuang and lived in a bamboo structure built by their parents within the campus.

  As high as Smangus, Hsin-kuang's altitude is also over 1,500m above sea level. The two villages face each other, with the gorge of Takechin Creek (塔克金溪) in between.

  Every Monday morning, higher-graders led the smaller kids to go to school along the V-shaped mountainous trail. The track was so steep that they had to go down to Takechin Creek and then climb up to Hsinkuang.

  "During my years, our school principal said it was OK if the first-graders could arrive at school before dinnertime on Monday. On Saturday, we lower-graders could leave for home as early as after breakfast, while the higher-graders could leave only after finishing schoolwork, " recalled Yuraw, 31.

  The kids had to cook for themselves. The older boys and girls usually cooked a big pot of rice for many meals. They would cook another pot only after the previous one was finished, no matter how many days it had taken, according to Yuraw.

  "I don't remember that I ever had any vegetables or meat, just the rice. This is why I didn't grow tall," Yuraw said in a self-mocking tone.

  Besides doing their schoolwork, the kids had to serve as messengers. The postman would drop letters at Hsinkuang Elementary School for the kids to bring back on the weekend.

  For higher study, Smangus kids have attended Chienshi Junior High School. Dropouts are not rare in the settlement due to the long jurney to study. Most stayed in the village and helped their parents work in the fields.

  However, the legend of Sman-gus begins in 1991, when a group of sacred trees was found.

  "One day, a village elder dreamed of our ancestors, who told him in the dream that there was a group of sacred trees located to the east of Smangus, and the village would someday become as flourishing as the Lala Mountain (拉拉山)," a Smangus pamphlet says.

  Lala Mountain is an Atayal stronghold in Ilan County, and its tourism has been boosted by its famous sacred trees. Peaches are the most popular fruit there.

  The Smangus tribal mem-bers therefore decided to find their own sacred trees as a means to fight poverty.

  All adult villagers began the searching in groups. They started out in the early morning and came back during the sunset. It did not take long before the group led by settlement chief Icyh Sulung (曾振川) found the trees, which are all red cypresses.

  These trees are located 5km to the east of Smangus, a two-and-a-half-hour walk on a tough mountain trail.

  Icyh named the biggest one Ta Laoyeh (大老爺, meaning "big master"). The tree, about 2,500 years old with a perimeter of 20.5m and a height of 35m, ranks as the second largest sacred tree in Taiwan, according to the information released in 1996 by the Taiwan Forestry Bureau. The biggest one is the sacred tree of the Taan Creek (大安溪神木) in the Tashueh Mountain (大雪山).

  The revelation of the sacred trees immediately attracted hikers. Icyh and his younger brother Masay (曾玉智) built two simple guesthouses to receive the hikers.

  A massive tourist flow followed the completion of the road. In 1995, on the eve of the road's inauguration, the long poverty-stricken tribesmen began to grow peaches.

  In order to accommodate new tourists, residents begun to build guesthouses, one after another.

  Three years ago, seeing that the competition among guesthouse owners had undermined neighborhood relations, the tribesmen decided to overcome the bad feelings by practicing collective management of the guesthouses following the creation of a foundation.

  All family members and jobless villagers have been organized under the foundation and become the staff of the guesthouses. Tourists can book their rooms only through the foundation.

  This year, the foundation decided to expand the collective ownership to the land and all its harvest. This summer, for example, peaches are picked and sold under the management of the foundation, no longer by individual peasants.

  "So far, among 22 households in Smangus, only four households refuse to join," said Masay.

  Yumin Leisa (何信發), a guesthouse owner in his sixties, explained why he does not want to join the foundation's collective system.

  " I am too old and ill. I suffer from T.B. I am not energetic enough to join them," said Yumin.

  Nevertheless, his daughter Lawa Yumin (何麗芳) gave another explanation.

  "This guesthouse was built with the compensation money of my elder brother's life insurance. When it was under construction, we were not told of the collective plan. We were informed only after the completion of the building. We don't want to give up this property built at the price of my brother's life," she said.

  However, times have changed. As the settlement chief's power is declining in modern society, Icyh could not do anything but face this.

  "In traditional Atayal society, the settlement chief could hold a public trial against those who had not followed his orders or rules, and exclude them from the settlement," said Wu Chi-ching (吳智慶), a senior field researcher on Aborigines.

  Under Smangus' collective system, all working members are currently earning NT$10,000 as a monthly salary. In addition, the foundation pays the members' children's tuition. Marrying youths can also gain NT$200,000 to start for their new life. The foundation also is studying the possibility of offering pensions for retired people.

  According to Smangus' first university graduate, Lahui Icyh (曾隆清), a collective society did exist in Atayal's complex of culture, taboos and traditions.

  "Under these guidelines, people live and work collectively. Properties were shared among the members," Lahui said.

  Lahui is the settlement chief's son. He was a lucky boy that he did not have to travel a long way to attend junior high school in Chienshi like his peers. He had good scores in primary school, so a Christian group giving regular social services in Smangus offered to take him away to live and study in Taipei after he graduated from Hsinkuang Elementary School.

  This summer, Lahui graduated from National Chiayi University (嘉義大學) and has gained admission to Providence University's (靜宜大學) graduate institute of ecological engineering.

  Unlike some other Aboriginal areas, alcoholism has never been a problem in this community.

  "Alcoholism usually accompanies unemployment. A few years ago, there were still a few older jobless tribesmen who indulged in alcohol. Since the foundation integrated them into our network and offered them jobs, alcoholism has almost disappeared," Yuraw said.

  On the last day of last year, Chunghua Telecom completed the work of setting a tremendously costly cable to connect Smangus with the Internet's virtual world.

  Today, in terms of hardware facilities, Smangus is as modern as the rest of Taiwan. Now they call themselves "a settlement of God" (上帝的部落).

  Childern in Smangus no longer travel for hours on foot to attend school. It takes them two hours by bus to arrive in Hsinkuang, as Smangus does not have enough children for the educational authorities to set up a branch school there.

  According to Smangus' oral history, a few hundred years ago their ancestors left their settlement in what is now Nantou County's Jenai Township and crossed Tapachien Mountain to arrive in Smangus.

  During the early Japanese rule, the Atayal people in this mountainous area fought the Japanese.

  For better monitoring and management, Smangus residents were forced to relocate to more developed areas in Chienshi County. But some managed to sneak back.

  The late 1980s were the darkest time for Smangus. Many mushroom growers abandoned the business and left to look for jobs.

  After the unveiling of the sacred trees, villagers began to move back for better job opportunities.

  "This year, a young man married a Vietnamese girl and established his own family. So we have one more household, totaling 22," Masay said with obvious pride.

  "Nowadays, only Smangus and Cinsbu in this area are free from the Han Chinese people's economic invasion in that the land in these two settlements is still completely in the hands of Abrigines," said Masay.

  Though land transactions in Aboriginal areas are only allowed between tribal members, many Han Chinese individuals or business groups have acquired land from Aborigines through illegal deals.

  "We can't let the Han Chinese people's hands reach here; otherwise we will begin to lose our land and become their workers," said Masay.

  The scenario has been like this: As soon as a Han Chinese group gets into an Aboriginal area and builds big resort facilities, the tribesmen would begin to sell land to other Han Chinese.

  Since the Aborigines have no means to compete with these big groups, they are forced to abandon their businesses and work for the group.

  "Once we were deprived of land and worked for them, we would become nothing but slaves," Masay said.
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